Eulogy of an Angel
by foreignreign
Summary: In a universe where God controls all - floods, natural disasters, deaths, wars - and uses his Seraphims - angelic lower-beings - to execute such inhumane deeds, can a newborn Seraphim rise up and recreate a universe that seems doomed to destroy itself?
1. Chapter 2 A Calling

Another day. This time, the alarm clock didn't go off, most likely a bad omen. Kitai rushed to get ready for school, barely making the bus. "Sigh... stupid alarm. Why didn't it go off?" If only that would be his only worry for the day.

Homeroom had started when he got to school; the bus had taken thirty minutes longer than it usually did on its route because of the accident that happened on a local street. Then the announcements came on.

"As a reminder, today is a half day, to make time for the parent-teacher conferences today..."

"Great... now my parents can see my crappy grades..." Kitai wandered off in his mind. The announcements never meant anything for him. He didn' participate in any afterschool activities or clubs, and he didn't do any sports because he wasn't the athletic type. All he would ever do was go home, and talk to his online friends. Quite the boring and dull life, but it had never gotten to him before.

The announcements were just about to finish, breaking him away from his train of thought. "Now, please report to your first-period classes."

Biology class, joy. Biology was one of Kitai's weak points, and he could never understand the concepts of the lessons. He would always have to study a bit more, which rarely happened. For some reason though, this period seemed different from all the previous Biology periods... something was odd about it. Something he could not point out. The idea confounded his mind, and he could not put his finger on it.

The teacher began one of her ongoing lectures about Biology. How could she be so interested in a topic that Kitai found so... boring?

"And so, the diploid organism is represented by the symbol 2n, which means it has 2 pairs of chromosomes." stated the teacher. And then begun the monotony of his life in school. Kitai looked out the window and began thinking of what life would be like if he lived in Arizona... with Rea.

Meanwhile, three black Hummers drove into the school parking lot, breaking down the iron fence. Fourteen men walked out, each armed with an AK-47 assault rifle.

Kitai looked out the window, bored. His eyes laid a gaze upon the group. Then Kitai's eyes met the tallest of the group's eyes, Vertigo. They stared at each other, even though neither of them met before, until the teacher asked him to answer the next question.

Kitai immediately shot up. He looked down on his textbook, and did not see where they were. "Uhm, I... don't know where we are."

The teacher rolled her eyes while the class giggled.

"Then sit down, and pay more attention." she ordered.

Kitai sat back down, and looked outside to check for the men. There was no one there anymore.

The suspicious men rushed toward the front entrance of the school, and the unattentive guard tried to pull his pistol out of his holster, but was incapicated before he could successfully shoot.

"Like taking candy from a baby..." mumbled one of them.

"Yea, this sure was a great idea. Who wouldn't want to pay a few million dollars to save a bunch of highly academic dorks anyway?" laughed another.

Someone threw a rock at one of the terrorists, hiting him in the back of the head. "Shaddup. This plan isn't flawless, you idiots should know that. This is the third try." Suddenly a tall, bulky figure entered the building. He seemed like a behemoth to the others in his group, a six foot, ten inch tall monster. He held a cigarette in his mouth, smoking away. The fourteen other men nodded in accordance. He pulled out the cigarette with his left hand. "Ok you dolts, we're gonna do it right this time, or someone's gonna have to answer to me. Ya got that?"

"Yessir!" they all replied.

The fourteen of them split up and scattered throughout the building, blocking of all non-emergency exits. One of them knocked out the secretaries, and locked the emergency exits electronically. No one was getting in or out; which would make it that much easier to protect. The leader went straight for the intercom system, ready to make his little State of the Union to his favorite little audience.

"Hello punks. This is your favorite terrorist leader, Vertigo. Pleasure to meetcha."

A wave of fear swept the entire school body. A terrorist? Attacking their school? Unheard of. Why would anyone attack a school in the middle of Delaware, a state that barely anyone cared about? Everyone gaped in horror, and were shocked to realize the truth.

"Oh, and don't worry. I'll take good care of ya." The message ended abdruptly.

No one in the building found anything to say. They were at a loss of words, and a great wave of fear swept over the school body. Terrorists ran into the rooms, collecting anything valuable, and they made sure to get every cellphone, along with the backpacks the students possessed.

"Heh... so very easy... now we just need to make the ransom call." Vertigo grinned an evil smirk. He was waiting for this moment. There were approximately nine hundered students in this school. If he could get ten thousand dollars per student, that would be nine million smackers. Nine million. He could already tell how he would spend that nine million. Of course, being a greedy bastard, he could easily demand for more. Maybe even one hundred thuosand dollars per student. That would make it ninety billion. Ninety billion. Those two words alone resonated in his mind, he loved the sound of those words. Ninety billion.

An hour had passed. No one said anything. No one could say anything. They were still too scared. And even if they weren't, there would be nothing to say. Fear was still control of the minds of all of the students. If they did something, they could get shot for it. Plain and simple. No way could they do anything about that.

One of the mobsters came upstairs to pick up the prettiest girl, one of those ditsy blondes that any man would want to save. It was a perfect plan. Get one of those blondes to advertise how well you've held up the school. She'll cry and scream for her daddy. How perfect. They picked a girl named Loretta.

Kitai heard Loretta scream as she yelled out in the hall.

"I don't want to! I don't want to help you idiots!" she screamed. Everyone looked down, sad, as they were scared to do anything.

"Shut up." the man smacked her in the back of the head to silence the screams. Loretta began to cry. She passed the room Kitai was in.

His eyes met hers. The sadness filled in Loretta's eyes gave Kitai the courage to do something bold, daring, courageous and yet stupid at the same time.

After a good half hour or so, Kitai pulled out a manga from his side pocket. It was entitled "Tsubasa," one of his more favorable mangas. It featured an interesting storyline, romance, and flashy fight scenes. One of the patrolling terrorists out in the hall caught this, and approached Kitai, who was still sitting down.

"You there, where the hell did you get that?" he inquired.

"Me?"

"Who else would I be talking to, you idiot?"

"Oh, sorry. I'm reading a manga. Tsubasa. Its basically a Ja --"

"I don't care what the hell that damn thing is! Where did you get that!" the man was so mad that it seemed like one of his bulging veins in his forehead would pop at any moment.

"Oh, sorry. I'll put it away..." Kitai started to move, acting as if he was going to put the book back, but instead threw it straight up into the air.

The terrorist looked at the manga for a moment, then looked back down at the seat.

"What the... where'd he go?" the man looked to his sides, and saw no signs of Kitai.

"Behind you." Kitai whispered. Kitai had somehow managed to manuever around to the man's back, and threw a quick elbow to the spine. "That was easier than I thought it would be." The man fell, and smacked his head straight into the desk, as if he hadn't taken enough damage already.

The class just stared, stupified by the heroic act.

He motioned them to not say a word. "Everything will be all right."

Kitai picked up the dropped AK-47, and headed outside.

"Fourteen of them... I guess its time to test my luck." Kitai headed towards the door of his biology room carefully. He peaked his head out of the corner, looking left and right, just like a five-year old would when crossing traffic. "Oh boy, this is gonna fun."

He smiled an odd smile. Was Kitai enjoying this?

Kitai saw a shadow coming from the corner just a few feet away from the door. He quickly pulled his body back into the room, and once again, motioned for everyone to be quiet. The guard walked by, not noticing what had just happened. Then Kitai rushed him, the guard turned, but a moment too late, as Kitai already threw a lethal blow to the man's neck. He fell unconscious.

"Two done. Thirteen to go." a grin covered Kitai's face.

However, he was unaware that they apparently walked in pairs. Another man came walking into the hall.

"What the..." started the man.

He reared his gun. Kitai panicked. He couldn't shoot, that would alarm the other terrorists, and that was something he surely did **not** want to do. He had to do something though. Quickly, he threw his newly acquired rifle at the man's head, knocking him out. And just as swiftly, Kitai caught both rifles in mid-air, to make as little noise as possible. "Three down."

Kitai then dragged the bodies back into the Biology room, and requested that the bodies be "well taken care of." He rushed out of the room, this time to the left, but he ran stealthily to not attract attention. He saw two shadows nearing the corner. He pushed his back against the inner wall, his fists ready to throw a few firece jabs. Just as he saw the legs of the shadows, he leaped out in front of the two men, and threw a fearsome uppercut at the closer one's jaw, rendering him unconscious. The second groped for his knife, or any weapon at that. His rifle was strapped around his shoulders, and wouldn't be able to aim it fast enough. Kitai took this to his advantage and pulled on the rifle with both hands, bringing the man towards him. Then he let go with his right hand, and thrusted his elbow into the man's Solar Plexus, rendering him unconscious as well. "Five down."

Kitai noticed something about the group's defensive layout. If the terrorists were following a pattern, then there were two of them at each corner, accounting for eight of the fourteen men. Well, nine since he had taken care of the one in the Biology room. Six left... where would they be? The lobby maybe? Wait... no. He thought harder for a second. Where would you put your other men to strategically lockdown a building? The exits. They were more than likely guarding the exits for the building on the first floor. Counting the gym exit, the auditorium exit, the cafeteria exit, and the library exit all on the first floor, that would leave one of them. Vertigo was obviously in the office, guarding the lobby. That accounts for all of them.

But he didn't have any more time to think. Kitai heard a bulletshot stream towards him, and reacted with a quick dodge to the side. He looked up, realizeing that there were two men staring straight at him, both in a firing stance, ready to spray a deadly storm of lead.

Fifty nine bullets came storming through that once empty hall way, all aimed straight for Kitai. He looked for a way to escape, but there was none; no doors to run behind, no lockers to cover him. It was just him, the wall, and the oncoming storm. Luckily though, he spotted a small gap in the bullet wall, and he advanced to try and test whether or not he was truly lucky.

To the two men, he seemed like an insane little boy that wanted to die. Kitai was dashing straight for them, at full speed. And as soon as the bullets were a few feet away from crashing into his flesh, he dived for that small hole, his only hope. He dove for his life. The hole was not big enough though. Six bullets managed to make contact on his arms, and they ripped away bits of skin from his body. Kitai winced in a bit of pain, and tried to minimilize the damage by spinning out, which proved to help, but only a little.

The men were in shock. They didn't think the teen would make it out alive, so there guns weren't ready to empty another clip, but they tried to reload their guns with great fervor now, their hands shaking, trembling in sweat. They thought of what the boy was capable of, and that only worsened their ability to reload. Quickly, Kitai got up, still wincing in pain from the scratches, and managed to get to the men before they could reload. The two terrorists started to open their mouths, ready to scream, but nothing came out. They reached for their knives. Kitai wouldn't let them though, or at least the first one. Before he could fully unsheath his dagger, Kitai had already launched a high kick to his face. The other man turned his head to watch as his partner flew backwards from the attack, and managed his knife out. There was no one in front of them though. And once again, Kitai was behind his target.

"Try harder next time." Kitai threw a punch for this man as well, knocking him out much like the first six had been.

And then again, he heard that noise that embodied death for many. A man from the far hall was shooting at Kitai. Again, Kitai dodged the bullets, this time it was as if he were dancing to dodge the bullets. Kitai's body barely caught two more bullets, ripping his shirt right along the side. He did not noticed this scratch though, as the pain from the previous wounds overwhelmed the pain from these insignifcant shots. He managed to reach the man before he could reload, and his leg met the his victim's legs, in a sweeping action, causing the insurrectionist to fall backwards. Then another figure loomed over him from the side with a weapon ready to fire.

"Shit..." Kitai muttered. How was he going to dodge this one? Kitai had taken a lot of his effort to not falter from his wounds, and running the distance of the two halls in a matter of seconds was a challenge for him. Here's the second guard he forgot about, aimed straight for the lone warrior.

Kitai examined this scene for however long he could to find an escape route. Kitai found one.

The body.

He thrusted his two palms at the man who was still in mid-air, and launched him like a projectile straight at his comrade. The man pulled the trigger, and his rifle screamed loud shooting out the panels on the ceiling. Starting to gasp for air, Kitai's arms fell to his knees, worn out. He breathed a small sigh of relief. "Nine down."

The walkie-talkie that one of the terrorists was holding started to scream out to Kitai. "Yo, what the fuck is happening up there? Hello? HELLO?" It was Vertigo's voice. Quickly, Kitai picked up the little toy, and provoked his enemy.

"Hey Vertigo. Guess what, nine of your buddies are down for the count. You should get better men next time." Kitai then threw the voice box at the ground, and smashed it with his feet. Kitai picked up one of the guns and started to walk down the stairs.

Vertigo was flaring mad. He then reached for the intercom system, flipping switches, blindly trying to get it to work. He needed to contact his other guarding men, but only one of them had a damn walkie-talkie. Why'd Vertigo have to be so cheap? But when his head swayed from side to side to search the room, he realized he still had an ace up his sleeve.

The next three guards weren't stupid. They held sniping positions, aimed on the only stairway that wasn't locked, the stairway that Kitai would soon come down; they were ready, their fingers were itching to pull the trigger. Sweat trickled down their foreheads. One of them couldn't take the pressure. He let out a bullet, shattering the glass that had been on the door.

"When the hell would that punk get down?" he shouted.

Then they saw the door creak open. The three of them let their rifles loose. The door filled with bullet holes in a matter of seconds, and then creaked open. No one was behind it though. They were confused for a few seconds, and then a figure jumped down the flight of stairs. It was Kitai. Kitai started his frantic dash toward his opposers once again.

The men reloaded their guns frantically. They didn't want to lose. They wanted to net that nine million dollars. They wanted that money bad. They quickly reloaded their guns, and fired a second mad torrent of bullets toward Kitai. The bullets formed a huge cluster of lead down the center of the hall, an easily avoidable attack. Or so Kitai hoped. He slammed his back against the wall left to him, hoping the bullets would fly on by him, and not touch him at all. He was wrong. One bullet managed to land straight into his left leg. It found a nice new home in his leg. After the realization of getting shot sunk into his hard head, Kitai fell to his knees, grabbed the wound, and cried in pain. He never knew that a bullet would hurt him this much. He quickly turned though to shoot the men though; he would not let them fire another volley of bullets.

Kitai aimed his gun. His target was clear in his sights, the gun rattled in his hand. He never wielded a real gun in his life before, he clenched his teeth, tears still running down his face. He let loose his fury, in the form of cold metal that could kill. The men were truly scared. They tried to get up to run away, but that did not help them at all.

The three bullets hit.

But no one died. No one fell to the ground, to spew blood, and yet, the bullets hit their marks: the guns. The rifles were blasted back, away from the stunned terrorists, smacking into the wall behind them, broken. They were now defenseless. Kitai launched himself at one of the three men, his right foot landed straight on his face. When Kitai landed from his potent jump kick, he grabbed the right leg of his target who didn't even get a chance to stop sliding yet, swung him to the left, and then launched him at the next victim. Two down within a matter of seconds. That left the third one, who was greeted by a powerful tackle to his backside, led by Kitai, which launched the man's face straight into the hard tile floor. Kitai recovered with an elegant front sumersault. It seemed like he was almost trained to do this.

Kitai fell to his knees once again. He was covered in blood, the pain of the bullets acted in unison to add a giant bolt of pain to Kitai. He grabbed his left leg once again, pressing it hard, hoping the pressure would stop bleeding. It only helped to stop the flow of blood though, but the pain of the bullet was still in there. Wiping off the sweat from his forward, and any blood that would come off with his right arm, Kitai got up. He wanted to beat Vertigo's face in the ground even more than before, and he wanted to do it now. He walked toward the empty lobby, expecting a man to be standing there, waiting for Kitai. There was no one.

"Vertigo, you bastard, come out!" he screamed in clear and utter annoyance. Kitai was more than just angry.

Vertigo partially came out, with a majority of his right side still hidden.

"Yo. Was beating up my comrades fun?"

Kitai spat out a blood, and then pressed one of his hands against the side of his neck, making an odd crack noise that relieved Kitai. Then he put his two hands together, and cracked his knuckles. "Its time for this farce to end." His eyes were filled with determination now, and if he was allowed another second, Kitai hand would be well embedded in Vertigo's face.

But Vertigo finally showed his ace. He pulled out Loretta with his right arm, dragging her out with him into the open. He hid behind the girl, with his gun aimed straight at her head.

Kitai's arms fell. "... bastard."

"Thanks for the compliment. Now, drop the gun. And kick it towards me."

Kitai could only comply. He didn't want her to die. Even though he barely knew Loretta, he knew that he couldn't carry the fault of someone else's death on his conscience. Especially when it was Kitai's idiotic idea to be a hero.

"Now. Spread your legs out, like you're about to do a jumping-jack. And put your arms straight out. And look at me in the face too." Kitai complied yet again.

"Nice... nice..." Vertigo aimed for Kitai, and let out a shot straight at Kitai's head. Kitai dodged. Vertigo pointed the gun back at his hostage. "Do that again, and Ms. Loretta here dies."

"..." Kitai looked down to the floor in disgust.

"Did you finally realize that you can't win? Took you long enough." Vertigo smiled, and let out a shot straight at Kitai's right arm. Kitai's right leg took a sudden step back to reduce the pain, even though his arm was bleeding. "Oh my... you are quite a strong boy." He let out another shot, this one was for Kitai's right leg. Kitai's left leg began to bleed just as his right was shot. He fell to the ground.

"Damn.. you..." Kitai barely managed those words. The bullet wounds hurt him, there was no use trying to hide it, but still, he tried to. Kitai stood up yet again, reluctantly, breathing harder than ever before.

Vertigo started to admire the boy's strength. "Such a strong boy... what a waste." He let another bullet soar. This time, Kitai's left arm. Kitai fell a second time. The pain was unbareable. Tears began to fall from his eyes. Yet again, like a broken robot, he rose.

"..." Vertigo had nothing to say. He was silenced by his amazement, fear, cowardice, and glee. He would soon get as much money as he wanted, and only this boy was standing in his way. In a few seconds, he would be no more. Just a few more seconds... but this boy scared him. What was this abomination standing in front of him? How could it still stand?

Vertigo put those thoughts away. Another bullet was launched, this one was for Kitai's stomach. A scream of pain was heard throughout the entire school.

Kitai's face lit up with pain, excrutiating pain. He couldn't take it anymore. Kitai fell to the ground once again, and rolled in pain. Somehow he grabbed his chest in pain. He was crying full force now. Tear for tear came rolling down his cheeks, falling to the ground. His eyes were closed, and he rolled into a fetal position. "Make it stop, make it stop, please, anyone, make it stop," was the only thing coursing through his mind. He did not like this pain one bit.

It stopped though. Kitai stopped moving.

"Hah, I knew he'd die." Vertigo smiled. He laughed an evil, maniacal laugh, a laugh filled with a sense of accomplishment. But slowly that laugh faded away, as did the smile.

Kitai pushed against the cold floor that had been his friend just a moment ago. His arms were shaking. Each wound was spewing blood out. It took two minutes for Kitai to push himself up into a standing position. Two long, painful minutes. Tears were still rolling down his cheek. His teeth were grinding against each other from the pain.

Vertigo just stared at the sight. It was disgusting. How did Kitai still manage to move? Then the magnum pointed to Kitai again.

"No! Stop!" Loretta screamed. "He's dead already!" she cried for Kitai. Kitai looked up at her face, and saw a grin there.

"Its ok Loretta..." he whispered.

Vertigo yelled at the top of his lungs, "Damnit! Shutup!"

Kitai looked up, and his cold, hard stare met Vertigo's eyes. Vertigo stood there, paralyzed for a moment. And then he stopped standing in shock. He aimed the gun for Kitai's head.

"Kitai!" Loretta screamed harder.

Vertigo pulled the trigger.

And in a sudden move that seemed stupid to Vertigo, Kitai dodged the bullet.

Vertigo saw what had just happened. He looked in disbelief. "I hope you both rot in hell then!" He pointed his gun straight for Loretta. He pulled the trigger for a seventh time.

Loretta closed her eyes as the barrel poked at her temples.

click

Vertigo gasped in horror. He pulled the trigger again.

click

Nothing came out. The gun was empty.

Kitai proclaimed, "I win."

And with that, another blind rush. This one was more of a frenzy than the others, as his tears did not let his eyes to see clearly. His bullet wounds were spewing out blood. His legs would tremble each time he put weight on either one. His arms were shaking, with no sight of stopping. And then his fierce fist met Vertigo's face. Vertigo closed his eyes to ease the pain, but that did not help, not one bit. Vertigo was launched straight for the wall behind him, the wall that was eight feet behind him. He crashed straight into it, cracking some of the bricks. He fell to the ground, his head bleeding. When his body finally met the floor, his eyes opened instinctively. He looked straight at the site of Kitai, who was still standing in his punching position. He tried to say something, but nothing came out. And nothing would come out, not until he regained conscience five months from now.

Loretta stood there, with no words coming out. Her mouth stayed wide open. She rested her left arm on Kitai's left shoulder. "Kitai, its ok now. You can rest," she said in a comforting tone.

Kitai pushed her arm away.

"Its ok Loretta..." he whispered again.

And then he fell to the ground. His body met the all too familiar floor. His tears stopped. His blood stopped flowing out. His movement stopped. Kitai layed there, dead.


	2. Chapter 3 Second Chance

A dark room. Why was Kitai in a dark room? A bright spot light illuminated a circle around Kitai. It came from the ceiling. He looked up, and saw no ceiling, or light either. Where was he? Why was he here? Was this heaven? Then a voice called to him.

"Kitai."

"W... who's there?"

"Do you seek a name?"

"What else do I 'seek' for when I ask 'who's there'?"

"Hmph. Obnoxious boy, but I'll let it pass. I am Cyril, a Seraphim."

A celestial figure emerged from the darkness. He was adorned with beautiful silver clothing, and a golden breatplate protected his body from any apparent harm. His wings were more beautiful and magnificent than anything any human had witnessed, carrying more colors than the Aurora Borealis's themselves.

"Seraphim?" That was the only word Kitai could manage to say.

"Yes. A divine being who was chosen to rule this galaxy."

"Ok. That answers two of my questions. Here's another: Where am I?"

"You... are in my lair. This is where I rule from."

"You rule from a dark room like this? I thought a god would rule from a throne or something."

"I am not God. Or a god. Of course, you would probably think of me like that. And this room is only dark because you are a human. Only other Seraphim or God can see in this room. You are neither."

"Heh, three questions answered, then here's my ne --"

"Thats enough of the questions. I will answer all your questions in due time. What is important right now is what I'm about to tell you."

"And that would be...?"

"You're dead."

"Wow. Thanks. I didn't know that. I didn't realize that five bullets could kill me." Kitai sighed.

"That is not the point. The point is that you are dead, and have two choices from this point: You can live again, or stay dead."

"I... can? I thought if you died, you die." a spark of curiousity ignited in Kitai's mind.

"Yes. That is true. True for a normal human. You are no normal human. You are a being that is a Potential Seraphim, you have the A-Factor."

"A-Factor? Whats with you and weird words." Kitai started to wonder if there was something wrong with this person.

"A-Factor. The Angelus Factor. Its the factor that determines if someone will become the next Seraphim."

"Hmmm... I died, and yet I have the A-Factor. So does that mean there's no next Seraphim?"

"Not necesarrily. Let me explain. Every thousand years, a new Seraphim is required, this is so because God does not want any Seraphim to gain too much power. And so, every thousand years, the Seraphim will endow five people with the A-Factor. You are one."

"Interesting."

"I'm not done yet. You still haven't chosen whether you want to live or die yet."

"Thats obvious, I want --"

"to die." Cyril finished Kitai's sentence for him.

"How'd you know?"

'I'm a telepath as well."

"Oh, joy." Kitai shrugged it off.

"Are you sure you want to die though?"  
"Y...yes." There was a stutter in Kitai's voice.

"Liar."

Kitai retorted, "Hey now, just because you can read minds doesn't mean you're allowed to."

"Ha ha, amusing boy. Why do you not want to live?"

"Because the world sucks. I was a loner for eleven years of my life. Eleven years of my life without anyone caring about me. Eleven years of my life gone. Eleven years of my life only being able to talk to toys. How fun is that? And then there are wars in this world. Pointless wars. Why can't people just agree on something? Are we really so stupid that we need to fight, and slaughter race upon race to settle a the dispute? Oh, and don't forget that the world is material, and very vain. The mass media always advertises that hot girls get everything, and that being sexy is everything. Well thats stupid. I believe that to be wrong, and yet, since the media opposes me, the media wins. Great world we've got going."

"And yet in a world as bad as you've described, there's still one thing that you and I both know is worth living for."

"What would that be?"

"Have you really forgotten?"

"Oh... Rea."

"Yes. Her."

"Rea..."

Somehow, when Kitai mentioned Rea's name a second time, he appeared back in his bedroom, and he also saw himself, on the phone. He could hear what he was saying on the phone. A nostalgic feeling swept over him.

"Rea, stop teasing me! Just because I mispronounced one word..."

Rea was laughing. "You said com-poo-ter! You dork. You can't even say computer right!" Rea was still laughing.

"Aww come on, you do that too! Remember when you mixed the words 'stop' and 'shut up' together? You managed to say something like, stoup!"

"Oh my gosh, not this again! I was just uh," Rea paused for a moment, looking for an excuse to bring up, "being creative! Yea! That!"

The conversation went on for hours and hours. Kitai realized he remembered all of this. This was a week before the incident at school. He was talking to Rea on the phone because she had been feeling sad the other day. They both seemed like they were having fun, even though both of them didn't like the world for what it was worth. And yet, they both could manage to smile about it, and laugh about it. Kitai was truly happy when he talked to her.

"... Kitai?"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

"I love you too, Rea."

Something hit Kitai, something hard hit his heart. He grabbed it. He now remembered...

"Promise me something Kitai."  
"Yes?"

"Promise me, that you won't die before you see me. Promise me that you won't commit suicide or do anything stupid to die. Promise me."

"Of course. Anything for you." he smiled.

Kitai had a reason to go on. Rea. Rebbeca. He loved her. How could he forget that? And then he was brought back to the dark room after his flashback. Back to the dark room with the one light, and the Seraphim, Cyril, standing before him.

"Well? Will you go on?" interrogated the shining angel.

"... yes. For Rea."

"Hmph. I knew you'd come through."

"Thank you... thank you for reminding me of her."

"Your welcome." A small, white light started to appear from beneath Kitai. "Oh, and one more thing. When you get back to Earth, you'll have, how should I say this... _enhanced_ abilities." And with that, the white light encompassed Kitai, and he no longer could see Cyril.

Kitai rose from his bed, but the tubes attached to his body stopped him from fully getting up. He searched the room and discovered that he was in the hospital. He looked at his wounds, which were now dressed. "I really didn't die?"

"Nope." answered a strange voice.

Kitai turned towards it. It was Cyril, but he wasn't in his silver and gold armor that he was wearing when they first met. Cyril was wearing the clothes of a professional doctor, as if he was one, but the face and voice was unmistakeable. It was Cyril. "What are you doing here? Why aren't you in that room?"

"I can go anywhere I want. As long as no one knows what I truly am."

"Well, why are you here?"

"To show you something. The staff thinks I'm a doctor, so its ok. Come here." Cyril moved towards Kitai and detached him from his life support.

"Uh, is this alright? I mean, I might die..."

"You're a potential Seraphim. You won't die."

"But I already died once!"

"True. But now your A-Factor is awakened, and you've realized that. You won't die again, not from a mortal wound. Now come." Cyril opened the window. The hospital room they were situated in sat thirteen floors above ground level. "Hurry." Cyril flew out of the window, and extended his arm out to Kitai. Kitai grabbed it, and then Cyril pulled Kitai out of the room, and brought him on the roof.

"Time for a bit of angel training."  
"Training?" Kitai's face lit up with curiosity.

"Would you prefer if you learned all of your abilities on your own?"  
"No, not really."

"Then listen up." Cyril pointed to his wings. "Each Seraphim has wings, potential or true. Since you haven't unleashed yours yet, it might hurt a bit. Just imagine wings appearing from your back, and say the words 'Damnate ego pennas."

"Well, whatever you say." So Kitai thought about beautiful blue wings emerging from his back, and uttered those magic words. "Damnate ego pennas." Immediately, Kitai hunched forward, uncontrollably. He felt a sudden pang of emotions drive through his head, pain being the most potent one, but it was strange, the feeling didn't hurt him. And after a few seconds, this strange mix of emotions left, and when he turned his head over his shoulder, magnificent blue wings had emerged, two of them.

"Well done."

"Thanks, now how do I fly?"

"With ease. Just imagine moving your wings."

Then Kitai started floating, hovering, almost as if it were second nature. His wings flapped back and forth to his command.

"Now, you have a special ability that only certain Seraphims have with their wings."

"Oh, whats that?"

"You have an extra pair of wings. An auxilury pair, for extra speed."

"Why do I have them?"

"Well, your A-Factor amplifies two things: First, your natural abilities. Kitai, you're an agile person, as you demonstrated when dodging those bullets. The second thing they amplify is your image of a strong human. You play a lot of that weird game, Ragnarok Online, and as a monk as well. That means you will have monk-like abilities, much like in the game."

"Oh really?"

Cyril replied bluntly, "Yes."

"Then I can..." Kitai put forth his right arm, and concentrated his thoughts into the form of a blue sphere. Five emerged from his hand, and started to circle around Kitai. "Woah."

"See?"

"Well, yes. Now how do I get my second pair of wings?"

"Just as you did with the first pair. But these wings aren't your like your first pair, they fan out perpendicular to your body. Think of them that way."

Kitai imagined two long, archangel-like wings popping out of his back, and once again he felt those strange emotions. Once again, it all went away, and two new wings appeared.

"Now, start to fly using your normal wings. And when you're ready, imagine that your two faster wings are like jets."

Kitai started to float upwards, he still wasn't used to flying obviously. After hovering around for a bit, Kitai finally built the courage to use his extra wings. He layed his body parallel to the ground in mid-air, and extended his faster wings. All of a sudden his archangel wings began to glow, and small, spheroidal light particles were gathering at the base of them. It seemed like all the air above him was gravitating towards those two wings, and then in the next moment, they let out. His wings piereced the sky, disrupting the silence that was once there. He was literally a flying bullet at this point. The wings were creating the exhaust that fighter planes commonly do, but this exhaust was a brilliant form of white and an ethereal blue, not the usual orange, white and red mix. But how fast was he going, and how would he stop?

The feeling was strange though. His face wasn't getting deranged by the speed he was traveling at, nor were his clothes. It was almost as if he had an invisible shield on, protecting him from the voracious wind attacking him. Then Kitai looked down. He was nowhere in range of the hospital anymore. He was far, far away from there. He was all the way at a beach. Rehobeth Beach to be exact. He stopped thinking about flying, and then his auxilary wings stopped thrusting, and his normal wings kept him afloat.

"How... Rehobeth beach... this place is a good hundred miles away from the hopsital, and I reached it in a matter of seconds?" Kitai's head couldn't comprehend how fast he was going. One hundred miles covered in a matter of seconds? Unimaginiable. That would mean he went at a speed of about two thousand miles per hour. Two thousand. Unbelievable. "But how do I get back... I don't remember which direction I went..."

And just as if it were a command, Cyril appeared infront of Kitai once again.

"I guess I should get used to you doing that."

"Heh, I do love doing that." Cyril laughed softly. "Anyway, back to more training." Cyril started to descend, and motioned for Kitai to land as well. "Now. Your weapon."

"Weapon? I don't have any of any sort..."

"Yes you do. Extend your right arm, palm facing up. Then create a sphere of angelic power, not the power that your monk ability would call for." After saying this, Cyril demonstrated what he meant himself. He extended his right arm, and a small, beautiful yellow orb appeared from his hand. Kitai followed suit. "Perfect. Now, grab the sphere, squeeze it, and imagine it forming the shape of a sword."

And so he did. Kitai reached for his orb of power, and grabbed tightly. When his hand formed a fist, a light illuminated from his clenched hand, and exploded away from his fist. And then after the miniscule light show had finished, a pole appeared from his hand, and started to take shape. It extended in length, and a sword started to form.

"What..." the sword then aligned itself vertically in front of Kitai, and he reached for it. Then the sword finally took its shape. A long, curved, katana glowing with the brilliance of the sun appeared in front of him. Kitai grabbed it, and expected for the sword to be heavy, but instead, it was very light, almost as if it weighed nothing. "How is it so light? This doesn't even feel like its a pound in weight..."

"It doesn't have weight."

"I don't get what you're talking about."

"Its a sword made by your powers. It has no weight."

"Then how can it harm something?"

"Its a sword made by your powers. Need I say that again?"

"So... my 'powers' don't weigh anything?"

"Not at all. Your sword is ethereal. It would be impossible for it to actually weigh something."

"So it has no physicality to it?"

"None."

"Impressive."

"Indeed. Now time to practice with it, I doubt you know any level of swordsmanship. Come, charge me."

"Ok..." Kitai armed his blade in an odd fighting stance that seemed awkward and yet familiar to him. His right side faced Cyril, his sword on his left. Cyril was just standing there, an easy, open target. Kitai charged a mad rush, ready to slice through Cyril's open chest. A swing, a miss. Cyril had evaded with a swift jump to the side.

"Come on, faster. You won't be able to beat anyone like that."

"Well, I'm a damn monk, I have no swordsmanship skills."

"Oh? Well I'm a knight, not comfortable with barehand combat. I'll fight you barehanded to give you a handicap." Cyril now stood in a fighting stance, ready to throw a volley of fearsome punches.

"Hmph." Kitai spit into the ground. Again he rushed, but this time, he quickly commanded his wings to emerge at the last second, and he managed to jump over Cyril, ready to slice through his open back. Kitai turned backwards, along with his deadly edge, cutting the air. But no one was there, Cyril had managed to evade him once again. Kitai looked behind him. No one. Above him. No one, and then he looked at his sword. Cyril was standing right on top of it.

"Too easy." Cyril leaped from the blade, and landed a kick on Kitai's face. "Definitely too easy."

Kitai was blown back several yards backward from the hit. He got up, with bruises, only bruises. Kitai got up and said, "Oh yeah? Well I'm not done yet." Kitai placed his sword in his left hand, and summoned his five spheres using his right hand. Small, blue orbs orbited around Kitai. "Ready for round three?"

"If you insist."

This time, Kitai grabbed three of his spheres, pulled them back to his chest, and they started to burn brighter and brighter, three powerful blue fires emerged from his hand. "How about this?" He threw the one of the three flames straight at Cyril, who easily dodged them with a high jump, but just as he looked up to find Kitai, he was gone, and in his place, a second fire was headed straight for him.

"Interesting..." Cyril dodged the second with relative ease as well, until he noticed the first two flames had come back to attack, turning straight towards him as if they were homing missiles. Needless to say, the attack was easily avoided, but Cyril slipped. He didn't notice the third one had come from behind, and it slammed straight into his back. "Gah..." And then the other two flames crashed into him from the front, dealing even more damage.

This was Kitai's chance. From his previous disappearing act, Kitai held a position above Cyril, and behind him was the sun. A cheap tactic, but effective. Kitai rushed straight down, his sword ready to taste the blood of Cyril. But just as Kitai reared his sword and sliced, Cyril had noticed. Cyril barely managed to dodge the attack, and the sword skimmed his skin, only catching some of it, barely making him bleed.

"Damn you! Stay still!" Kitai was furious, he let loose a volley of slashes, each one more fearsome then the next. "Stay... PUT!" More slashes. Cyril dodged each though, and with seemingly no effort. It seemed as though the two figures were dancing in the sky.

"You managed to hit me, I commend you, but thats the best you're going to get!" Cyril then let loose a powerful punch, straight for Kitai's gut. It landed succesfully. Kitai grinned though, a confident smirk appeared on his face.

"Heh..."

"What?" Cyril questioned his opponent with anger.

Suddenly, both figures turned a dark, black shade, and neither could move.

"What is this?" Again, his voice was filled with anger.

"Its a monk move. Root. Stops both of us from doing anything at the cost of a sphere. But..."

"Pif, that means you can't do anything either."

"Oh, I didn't finish. I can do something. My sphere will let me."

"..." Cyril was speechless.

Kitai called his last sphere with a booming voice to him, making Kitai glow with an awesome blue shade, and his body began to move. He pulled his sword back, radiating with the blue aura, and then thrust it straight into Cyril. "Occult Impaction!"

Cyril became a rocket, targeted at the Earth. The impact from Kitai's attack made him a spinning vortex, but not even the solid ground would stop his fall. After the impact, Cyril was still rolling on the ground. A minute passed. He had finally stopped rolling, and got up from his dirt pile. A hole appeared in the center of his body. Cyril got back up.

"Nice shot." complimented Cyril.

"Thank you, but why aren't you dead?"

"You think someone as weak as you could kill me?"

"Weak? Interesting words for someone who just lost." Kitai grinned a confident smirk.

"Need I remind you, I'm a knight." Cyril pulled his hand over his wound, and somehow, the hole disappeared, and Cyril was whole again. "This time, I'm not going to hold back. Of course, I won't kill you, but I'll put you in your place." Cyril extended his arm, and created a weapon, much like how Kitai created his, but Cyril's weapon was different. It wasn't a sword. It was an axe, a strange axe. Kitai summoned his spheres in response, and also let out his wings, both pairs. "You better be ready, boy."

This time, Cyril rushed at his opponent. He wildly wielded his axe, a light axe that only required the work of one hand to weild. He spun it, performed fake thrusts, to confuse Kitai. And then it happened. Cyril pulled his axe apart, revealing it to have a long chain hidden in the pole. He threw the axe head straight for Kitai. But Kitai wasn't that slow of a figher, and easily blocked it with his sword, parrying the axeblade, making it bounce off high into the sky. Then Cyril darted into the air, catching his blade, sheathed the chain back into the pole, and dove as fast as he could, straight for Kitai. The two figures met, and their blades did the talking. They were in a stalemate, with weapons locked, with no sense of either giving up.

Cyril let out a grin. "I didn't expect you to be this good."

"Neither did I." he retorted back.

They both turned black again. A sphere, lost. Frozen, but they could still talk.

"This move again?"

"It worked once, didn't it?" Kitai pulled another sphere, ready to perform his Occult Impaction again. Cyril grinned. Just as the thrust was made, Cyril flew straight into the sky. Shocked, Kitai managed to say something, "How... you should've stayed frozen!"

"Should've. But I didn't." Then he charged again, like a nuclear bomb ready to explode and wipe out anything in its path. He was heading straight down at Kitai.

"Heh." Another grin covered Kitai's face, and he too, dodged the attack with relative ease. The power of Cyril's attack created a huge crater in the ground, as if a miniature meteor had landed there. Kitai flew back into the sky, and summoned his two lost spheres. "We can do this all day, but you know I'll win. I'm better."

"Hmm. I take that as a challenge." Cyril flew up to match Kitai's elevation. Cyril started to spin his axe wildly, like a mad man gone berserk. Then another Cyril emerged. Another Cyril had formed from when he was spinning his axe. Strange, an illusion, or was it really an duplicate figure? Kitai was confused. How could he fight two men at once?

"Simple. You can't."

"How..."

"I can read minds, did you forget that already? And this is what my image of a perfect fighter is. One that can duplicate himself. My mirror image is not an illusion, but in fact, a living copy of me. Think you can still win?"

"A fun challenge. You know I love challenges." Kitai then disappeared. No, he didn't disappeared, thats a lie, but it seemed like that to Cyril. Since when could Kitai move _that_ fast? But it was too late to think. Kitai was behind both Cyrils, and spiked one straight into the earth with a devestating blow. "How about that? Snap is also a fun skill, although that too requires a sphere."

The remaining Cyril started to engage Kitai. Slash for slash, slice for slice, blow for blow. They were evenly matched. But then Cyril gained the upperhand by parrying one of the attacks, and jammed the butt of his axe into Kitai's chest, knocking him back. Kitai grabbed the wounded chest with his left hand, and then concentrated his four spheres to his blade. They grew larger, as if they were feeding off of his sword. Kitai roared his mighty roar, and spun his sword, flinging the oversized flaming spheres at his enemy. Cyril tried dodging and started to flee, but they could match his speed and agility. The spheres were hunting their target much like a fox hunts its weak and frail rabbit prey.

Then the first Cyril stood back up from the inital blow, detached his axe, and threw the axeblade at Kitai. Quickly, Kitai reacted and blocked it again with his sword, but the other Cyril detatched his axeblade as well, and threw it straight for Kitai. There was no way he could escape this, but he did. Kitai launched his four spheres to the oncoming blade, stopping it.

"You've gotta be better than this, right Cyril?"

"Right." Then both of his selves duplicated themself. Four Cyrils now. "And just so you know, four is my limit. You're lucky." Two Cyrils rushed Kitai at once. Two of the deadly axes met Kitai's blade. "You know you can't beat four of me. Two was a challenge. Four is impossible." And with that, the other two rushed him, ready to attack his back, and their axe blades met Kitai's flesh. The axe caught some of his blood, and enjoyed the taste. Kitai stopped blocking, the pain was immeasurable. Then the four Cyrils smashed Kitai to the ground with the butt of the axes. Kitai fell, and the impact was so powerful that his body bounced from hitting the ground. The loud thud of his second fall resonated in his ears, and then he fell into a deep, deep sleep.


	3. Chapter 4 The Calm Before the Storm

A bedroom, with two beds. Kitai appeared in this room. It seemed, so familiar to him, and yet, at the same time, it was also very distant to him. Where was this room? He knew in the back of his mind where it was, what it was, but something did not let him to remember. He searched the room, a closet, dresser, cabinet, sock drawer, a small TV suspended from a wooden support attached to the ceiling. He knew this room. This was his bedroom eight years ago. One bed was for him, the other his brother. He looked in the corner opposite of the door. He saw a small boy, crying there. Kitai knew the boy, he could recognize the boy, and yet he couldn't name him. Was this boy Kitai when he was younger? And why was he crying? Kitai felt pain rush to his head. He knew this memory, but his brain pushed it so far back because he did not want to remember this. This memory was a particular memory that hurt Kitai whenever he thought of it, and he also knew that in this certain event, something else happened. Something else happened, afterwards, something important.

Then the boy whispered something. "Suicide..."

Kitai abdruptly rose from his bed, tubes attached to him again. "Well, this is certainly nostalgic as well. Did that angel stuff really happen?" Kitai extended his right arm, and created his angelic orb. "I guess it did." Kitai waited a bit. If he knew what was going to happen next, then...

... minutes passed. Cyril was nowhere to be found. "Odd. He should've appeared by now." And with that, a doctor walked into the room. He wasn't Cyril either, but he started to say something.

"How long have you been awake?" asked the doctor, wearing his white labcoat garmets, and then proceeded to analyze Kitai's vital signs.

"Just a few minutes. How long have I been asleep?"

"Three days total." was the response.

"Three days..."

"Three short days. For anyone else, the healing should've taken about ten or so days. You only took a third of that time. I guess God is on your side."

"God... or maybe a Seraphim..." mumbled Kitai.

"Hmm?"

"Oh. Nothing."

The doctor then began to make sure Kitai was fully rested, and then proceeded to exit the room. "You're a strong boy Kitai. And you've impressed some very important people. Just a heads up, because he might come here today, knowing that you're finally awake."

"Eh... thanks." Important people eh? Like the stupid politicians and what not? Kitai could care less about them. Politics were stupid to him, most of the time the people would lie just so they could hold a position in office, and other times the politician themselves would be stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. But what to do next? Surely, everyone would view Kitai as some hero. Maybe he could be rich and famous, and not have to work. Maybe the government will pay him big bucks or something, and give him a reward for what he did. After all, he single-handedly dismantled the famed Vertigo and his attack. Why wouldn't they?

And then his memory of the fight between him and Cyril popped inside him. That fight. He had lost so bad. Just how strong is a Seraphim? Cyril seemed to be holding back, even when he had copied himself... and also, did anyone know of that? Did anyone noticed the scar he had on his back, if there was one at all? So many questions yet again, and most would be left unanswered.

A helicopter could be heard from Kitai's room. He glanced outside, and noticed it seemed to be a rather important helicopter... army-class jets were patrolling the skies. The president probably. Who else would come in a helicopter to see someone who just became a hero? But Kitai wasn't in the mood to talking to anyone, anyone that isn't Rea that is. A few minutes passed, and finally the all important head of the United States came in.

The president's long, draught out speech had finally ended. Kitai hated speeches. They always managed to bore him, and this one was no exception. It was hard for Kitai to **not** fall asleep. Of course, if he had fallen asleep, he probably would've been smacked or something. But there was some good that came out of it. The president had agreed to do three things: Kitai would receive a large sum of money (everyone wanted money, even the great Kitai couldn't deny this), he would not be bothered by the media for the next week (the media could stalk him afterwards though, since the USA was the land of free press) and Kitai and his family would not have to pay taxes. Heh, taxes. But tomorrow would be a great day. Tomorrow Kitai would fly to Rea's house for the first time and see her. For the first time he would meet the girl he's loved for months.

You see, Rea and Kitai met in an odd way. Both of them played a game called international Ragnarok Online, an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game). Thats where they fell in love. A game. A depressing thought for Kitai, just showing how much of a loser he was to other, more "popular" people, but he didn't mind. He truly loved Rea, even if he never saw her in real life.

So Kitai was going to make this day special. He was going to show her what it was like to fly, he was going to go on a date with her, maybe a movie, and most importantly, he would give her a beautiful emerald ring that he would soon buy, before he met up with her. But he still needed her address. He knew her number, and wha city she lived in, but he had no clue as to what address. But Kitai was a resourceful boy. He knew someone else that knew Rea's address, and he was easy to gain contact with. Very easy.

But first, he would have to head home to actually make contact with Steven. Kitai flew back to his house after he was allowed to leave the Hospital. Apparently his family truly did not care about him, because he didn't find a single member of his family checking up on him when he was out.

"Somethings never change..." Kitai sighed. He knew none of his parents would've cared, and he also knew that his family wouldn't of come. But he still felt as though he was let down. He still wanted to believe that someone would've checked up on him, and yet, no one didn't.

Kitai reached the front door of his house. He had no keys. He knocked. No one answered. He hit the doorbell. No one answered. "I guess no one is home." Kitai head towards the garage, and began to open it manually with his newly found strength. A relatively easy to open mechanism, he then held it open, walked inside, and dropped the door slowly. He then searched for the hidden key to the door to get inside, and he found it. Exactly how he left it. The door eerily opened, as if it was expecting him. The house was dark, so he flipped the switch. No activity. Nothing on. Not even the computer that his parents would usually remember to turn off was on. It felt like he was walking into an abandoned house, but he knew someone lived here. He knew four people lived here; his two parents, and two brothers. An odd feeling, he shook it off and changed into more comfortable clothes: khakis and a t-shirt. He went into the basement to get his TV dinner, and then started to heat it up in the same old usual white microwave. Then he headed over to the computer, flipped it on,and logged onto his fantasy world once again, Ragnarok Online.

"Login... KaiMagic... Password... MXman24..." he reiterated what he was typing for some odd reason. It felt like it was an eternity since he had last logged onto Ragnarok Online. He checked his buddy list on RO, and found no Rae to be seen. "Where could she be..." He checked his AIM buddy list as well. She wasn't on. "Odd, she usually would be on."

The microwave started to beep. Apparently his heart-warming meal of a crappily made slice of turkey along with peas that tasted like nothing and a spoonfull of mashed potatoes was finished. He headed over, and ate it hungrily. He hadn't eaten since the morning of the incident, so he ate the meal ravenously, even though it tasted quite bad. He went about it clumsily though. It felt odd to eat for the first time in four days.

After his brief meal, he head back to his computer. He found that Steven was on, an asked him what was wrong.

"Hey Steven, why isn't Rea on?"

"Dude! You're alive?"

"Uh, yes. Thanks for caring?" Kitai held in a giggle.

"Thats so cool Kai!" (Kai was Kitai's dubbed nicknamed that some of his friends used).

"Yea yea, anyway, why isn't Rea on?"

"Ah... well I don't know myself. She hasn't gone to school, I never see her there. I would call her, but as you know, I dont' know her too much, let alone her phone number..."

"Well, thanks anyway." Thanks for nothing. Jeez, if a girl's sick, and you know her, why not call her up to see if she's well? Not that it mattered to Kitai, since Steven wasn't really the most caring guy that would do that. He closed the window that he was talking to Steven in, and then saw that Meledi, an actual close friend of Rae, was on.

"Hey Meledi."

"Hi.. uhm..."

"Kitai. Y'know, Kitai? Rea's boyfriend?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Hey."

"Yea, thanks. Anyway, is something wrong with Rea?"

"Well, she ha --"

"... hasn't been to school, yea yea, but do you know if she's sick or anything?" Kitai was a bit annoyed at this point. He was filled with worry about Rea. But, worrying never got anyone anywhere, so he decided to wait until tomorrow to go to her house.

"No, I don't, sorry. Whenever I go to her house, her parents always tell me that she's in her room, sick."

"Is that so... well thanks Meledi." The thought of Rea sick made Kitai uneasy. She usually never got sick. He closed the window, and left the computer.

It was seven PM. Kitai never went to sleep at this time, and he didn't feel a need to start now. So he decided to use his newly acquired credit card from Mr. President up there, to buy a nice emerald ring for Rea. A very nice and beautiful ring for a perfect and spectacular girlfriend of his. He decided to go to the jewelry store after he got a shower. He smelled pretty bad.

After he ran his little errand, he went back onto iRO for a few hours, until he finally got too tired to do anything. It was ten PM that night when Kitai fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 5 Torrent of Fire

A playground. Now Kitai was on a playground, filled with kids laughing, running, dancing and just flat out having fun. All of the little children seemed to be having fun. All except one. There was one kid that seemed to be an odd-one-out, he was just walking around, looking down at the ground in front of him. Kitai approached the boy, and asked him for his name. The little boy didn't respond. He didn't seem to be the one to talk to strangers, or to anyone at that. He just kept walking, and whispering something as well. Kitai moved his ear down towards the boy to hear what he was saying.

"Suicide..."

Kitai once again immediately rose up from his bed. He was gasping for air, as if someone had just tried to drown him and was also sweating profusely. "Ok... these dreams seriously need to stop." He rose out of the bed, and looked at his clock. The clock read 9:27 AM. Kitai slept for eleven and a half hours? Thats strange... he usually can barely manage to sleep for nine hours, and yet eleven hours? "Why has my life gotten so strange as of late?"

He quickly changed, and then walked out of his room, then he was greeted by his brother who stormed towards the bathroom. "Time for your thirty minute shower?" Kitai yelled to him.

"Oh shutup. I take as long as I please."

"Suit yourself..." Kitai wondered downstairs, pulled out a slice of bread, and smeared peanut butter all over it. He reached for a bottle of jelly in the cupboard, and smeared that over the bread as well. Then he got another slice of bread, and made an old-fashioned peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Kitai sighed, yet another dull morning. "How delightful." He ate his sandwich rather apathetically. "I know something odd is going to happen today... I can feel it." And then he remembered that he was going to go to Rea's house today. "Eh, how'd I almost forget that." He hit himself on the head. "Jeez I'm absent-minded today..." He decided to watch TV for half an hour until his brother was done taking his shower.

Kitai finished taking his shower and also dressing up as well. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, but this was an anime t-shirt, different from his normal. His shirt was colored dark red with "Gundam Seed" written on the front. On the back was a picture of one of Kitai's favorite Gundams, the Aegis. Kitai headed towards the door, ready to leave. But his brother stopped him.

"Hey, Kai."

Kitai turned around. "What is it, Monte?"

Monte was the name of Kitai's eldest brother, the one that takes thirty minute showers. Monte then threw Kitai a cell phone. "You'll probably need one, so might as well have it on hand. The number is written on the back on masking tape."

"Thanks." was Kitai's reply as he looked at the number.

"Just don't do anything stupid. Our parents were worried when they heard about the incident."

Kitai didn't acknowledge the last statement, instead he turned around and walked out the door. His four wings emerged once again, and he set off. Worried. His parents never did that before. Why would they start now? Another question he would most likely not receive an answer to, something he had grown accustomed to. He sighed. He was getting used to many things. For instance, flying around. He finally got the hang of flying, and Kitai actually doesn't wobble around anymore, he flew perfectly straight now. Kitai glanced at his watch to check the time. It was 10:42 AM, way too early to meet up with Steven, since he would be in school. Delaware time is two hours ahead of Arizona time, so that would mean he could catch Steven six hours. What would he do for six hours? Kitai found Delaware boring though, and he didn't really feel like talking to his friends right now, because he knew they'd just ask about how Kitai managed to do what he did. So, to Arizona it was.

Kitai landed in Phoenix, Arizona, the city where Rea lived. It was only 9:27 AM. "Time travel doesn't seem as interesting as people make it sound." He walked deep into the city, ready to waste five hours in the corporate jungle. "Nothing better to do anyway..." He sighed again. He was getting used to sighing frequently as well.

After successfully wasting three and a half hours of his life, he started to search for the school where Steven and Rea went to. It was actually quite an easy target to find, for the buses had already started to gather at the school, and a few parents in their cars were buzzing around the building as well. Kitai walked towards the school, but still had an hour to blow off. He didn't feel like going shopping, and already had lunch. There was not much left for him to do, until something strange happened.

Out of nowhere, a storm of enormous earthy-black stones came hurling towards the city of Phoenix. The meteors crashed into skycrapers, buildings, anything, knocking them over, and leveling it in the process. Cold steel met rock-hard boulders. The boulders won out, and the steel buildings collapsed one after another. The people screamed in fear as many of them were either crushed by the blow of the crashes, or fell from the windows of the buildings. Others just ran away in fear. Kitai gasped in horror.

"What the hell..." were the only words he found.

The largest meteor continued to roll after its initial impact, and also continued to destroy anything in its path, until it finally stopped. Everyone thought the horror was over, but it most definitely was not. The 300-foot wide stone began to shake, as if it were alive. But it was alive. It then began to levitate, without any outside force aiding it. The other boulders seemed to react to this, and they too, started to float, and gravitated toward the largest stone. The boulders formed a golem figure, something people thought they would only see in movies. Then the stones flashed an ominous light, and suddenly a dark green fire covered the stones, almost as if it was the glue bonding the meteorites together, making sure they would not fall apart. Two black fires appeared on the stone that appeared to be the head, marking the eyes. An unsettling crimson fired marked the abomination's mouth. Like a primal ape would, the infernal being began to beat its chest, and many loud, piercing roars bellowed from its fiery mouth.

"Where is Cyril when you need him damnit?" Kitai couldn't think he could take such a beast alone, but he had to try, even without Cyril's help. But Cyril was well aware of the beast, but could not do anything about it. He had more important matters of his own to take care of.

Kitai's wings emerged from his back, his sword appeared from his hand, and he called upon his blue spheres once more. He flew up to the monster's face, and used one of his spheres. "Occult Impaction!"

Kitai's attack struck the beast's face, and was knocked back a few meters, but no damage was visible. The monster was furious, and threw a punch straight for Kitai. Kitai jumped, landed on the behemoth's arm, and started to dash towards the head. Kitai let out a loud battle cry.

"I've got you!" he screamed, and slashed the monster's head. The monster was oblivious to Kitai's attack, as it felt nothing. His head turned to meet Kitai's face, opened its mouth, and a large stream of fiery death erupted from the opening. Kitai was in the direct pathway of the stream of lava, with no chance to dodge. He was blown back a good mile, but only because an obstruction had stopped him. The blast knocked Kitai into a building, and he crashed through the glass, making the wounds even worse.

Kitai spit out blood, and got up. The beast thought that it was done with Kitai, but didn't realize he had gotten up.

The room Kitai had crashed into had one occupant, a middle-aged man who was covering his head with his arms, and was filled with fear. He looked over at Kitai, and was even more shocked when he saw the teenager rise up.

"Bastard." Kitai brushed his torn clothes off. His pants were ripped eveywhere, and only the waist part remained intact. His shirt was no more, the fire had engulfed it. "I liked that shirt too." Kitai's wings fanned out, and he regained his lost sphere. He darted straight for the beast, intent on slaying it. The man fainted when he saw the boy fly away with his wings.

The beast was running amuck in the town, breathing its molten breath everywhere, incinerating anything on site, or crushing it with brute force. It truly seemed to be a scene out of a movie. Then Kitai reached the monster's back, and he screamed yet again, "Occult Impaction!"

This blow was more powerful than the previous, and the monster's chest was blown forward, dragging the other appendages along for the ride. Kitai Snapped in front of the beast, and let out another Occult Impaction. The beast was playing tennis, and it was the ball. Then Kitai rushed to the monster with his wings, and launched another Occult Impaction at its head, launching it upwards, with its body vertical as if it had been dealt a lethal uppercut. Kitai ascended faster than the monster was from the blow, and he greeted the infernal beast's head with yet another Occult Impaction, this time, the beast was aimed straight for the ground. It screamed in pain as the fourth blow was dealt, but the scream was drowned out as it smashed into the ground.

Kitai groaned. "Don't tell me that I'm going to get used to killing things like this too." He was worn out, the fire had burned much of his skin, and it didn't help that Kitai was over-exerting himself. Then Kitai noticed something. There were glowing insignas at each spot where an appendage would meet the chest.

Suddenly the behemoth awoke from its slumber. It shook a bit, until it regained its stamina, and waved its right arm, smacking Kitai to the side, batting him out of the sky. Kitai was knocked several thousand feet away from the creature, and landed on his stomach with a loud thud. Kitai pushed himself up, and spat out more blood, gasping for air. His burns and bruises were much worse now.

"Damnit, I'm definitely not gonna get used to this." He managed to stand up, and started to rethink his assault, while the monster continued its assault on the city. "I obviously can't damage it like any normal being, and it did have some odd emblems burned into the stone at some parts." He remembered a faint energy radiating from those same spots when he was attacking the monster. "Well, I guess I better put an end to this." Kitai clasped his sword to put it sword away, and resummoned his spheres. His eyes were determined, and each hand had clenched a sphere now. He flew towards the monster, using his auxilary pair of wings, and as he reached the monster, the familiar feeling of his fiery spheres emerged, and he let loose those burning embers at the site of the lowest two insignas.

The behemoth writhed in pain as the blue fire met its weakpoint, and staggered around a bit. But Kitai would not allow the monster to recover. He quickly elevated himself more, and launched more spheres at the point where the arms met the chest. The monster could not take the pain anymore, and quickly turned around, lashing out to whatever was in the sky at that point with its bulky arms. Kitai managed to dodge the attack by using Snap once more, and now he was far behind the monster, ready for his last attack. He summoned his angelic orb, and called upon his sword once again. He waved it to his backside, let out a battlecry, and began to glow an awesome red aura. He put forth more energy into his sword, and his sword now emitted a powerful red aura as well. He was ready now. He charged towards the monster that was flailing around like a chicken thats lost its head. Just before Kitai reached the infernal coals of the monster, he gripped his sword tighter, and hurled it straight for the neck's insigna with all of his might.

The monster screamed again, as it was forced forward by the impact.

Kitai bolted upward, and extended his right leg, aiming it straight for his sword that was jammed into the weak spot. Kitai yelled out loud, as loud as his throat would let him. "DIE YOU BASTARD!"

His foot met the sword's hilt, and to the monster, it felt as though a planet just smashed into him. The monster was overcome with too much pain, and fell to its knees. The screaming was so loud that glass shattered, and cars and civilians were knocked away from the waves of it. The beast gripped its head to try and ease the pain.

Then there was a pause. An odd silence.

The monster fell to the ground. The ominous green fires were now a pale white, and then dissapeared from sight. The large boulders turned to ashes, and the monster was no longer in existance.

Pandemonium uproared in the city. The people were experiencing so many different emotions at once. Pain, confusion, sadness, happiness, despair. Too many emotions to name. Ambulances were rushing back and forth, trying to get as many injured people to the hospital. Firefighters were attempting to rescue anyone from buildings that were felled by the behemoth. Police were making an effort to settle everyone down.

Kitai landed, and breathed a sigh of relief. He was still gasping for air, and it didn't help that his wounds hurt very badly. He walked over to the school, which was conveniently only a block away from where he landed. He saw Steven looking in awe at the ground-zero that was made just a few moments ago. As Steven saw Kitai walking toward him, he started to run towards him.

Steven screamed to Kitai, "Kai. Kai! What the hell just happened?"

"I don't know." Kitai let out another sigh of relief. "But more importantly, where's Rea's house?"

Steven was angered by this. "More importantly?" He retorted. "Half of the city was just demolished, and you can only think of Rea?" If Kitai wasn't injured, Steven would've punched him straight in the face.

Kitai answered the insult with an evil glare aimed at Steven's angered eyes. "Where's Rea's house?" There was a hint of annoyance and anger in Kitai's voice as he made his statement. "I'm only in Arizona because of Rea. If I wasn't here, the city would've been gone by now. Now take me to Rea's house."

Steven still had something to say though. "Rea's house? We need to get you to the hospital first. Look at yourself."

Kitai already knew the condition he was in. "Rea's house." Kitai was clearly pissed off at this point. "**Now.**"

There was no use trying to argue with Kitai, as he was right. If he wasn't going to meet Rea today, the monster would've just run rampant around, with no one to stop it. But still, Kitai could've waited an hour or so to go to the hospital and get his wounds looked at. Reluctantly, Steven brought Kitai over to his broken down pick-up truck. He started the ignition.

"Get in. It's easier if I just drive you." Steven examined Kitai. "I doubt you want to walk in the condition you're in anyway."

Steven and Kitai left the city in shambles, with people running around everywhere. Order would not be restored for a long time. There was a strange silence in the car, Kitai only wanted to talk to Rea at that point, and Steven found nothing to say. It felt awkward meeting someone you've only talked to online, and then not saying anything to them.

After a short drive, they were at Rea's house. Steven drove up the driveway, and let Kitai out. They headed towards the door together.

"Good luck!" yelled Steven. He stepped back a bit so Rea wouldn't see him when she answered the door.

"Yea, whatever." Kitai mumbled. He wanted to talk to Rea, and only Rea.

He walked over to the frontdoor, and hit the doorbell.

ding dong

No one came. Again, he hit it.

ding dong

He heard movement inside. Someone was walking down the stairs, slowly at that.

After waiting for a brief moment, the door swung open, and Kitai was greeted by a familiar face that he's seen before, but only in pictures.

"Rea... I'm here." Kitai stated.

Rea was in shock... Kitai? Kitai was here? There were no reports that Kitai had gotten out of the hospital, as the media wasn't allowed to release any, so few people knew Kitai wasn't in the hospital.

"K... Kitai?" Then Rea remembered how unkept she looked. Her cheeks were flushed, and showed signs of massive crying. Her hair was in tangles, seeming to go in every direction. And she was also still in her sleeping clothes. She moved her head to the side, trying to avoid any direct stares. "Hi..." she said in a coy manner.

And in a split-second, something hit Rea. She looked forward. Kitai was hugging her.

"Rea... I finally get to see you. I am so very, very happy." Kitai was crying in joy. He finally met the girl he's loved for so long, but yet never met prior to this moment. Rea's only response was to embrace him.

There they stood. Kitai and Rebecca, hugging each other, they were content with that. They had finally met each other, and hugging seemed to be the thing they wanted to do most.

After a few minutes, Kitai broke the silence. "Rea... I love you." Kitai could not stay awake though. He was in great pain, and he wanted, no, he needed rest. He managed to say a few last words before passing out. "Rea, let me rest here, please..." And with that, Kitai fell asleep, asleep in Rea's arms.

Rea looked down upon the sleeping Kitai. Her slender hands worked their way over his sweet, beautiful face, committing it to memory for all eternity. There was nothing that could be said. It wasn't because Kitai was unconscious, but rather because no words could capture the beauty of his body pressed up against hers. She smiled. For once, she was happy.

"I love you," she whispered softly to his sleeping form. "I love you."


	5. Chapter 6 Rude Awakening

Cyril stormed through the long, empty hall. The hall held many doors littered along each side, and upon each door lay a strange code, different from the next; a letter that was followed with five numbers after it. The ceiling was adorned with chandeliers made of pure, ornate gold, and hung from chains made of opal. The fire from the candles burned a bright fire, a fire that would never go out. Cyril finally made it to the end of this beautiful and yet weird hall. He was greeted by two familiar ten foot tall doors. He ushered them open, and walked through.

The new room he was in was a true sight to behold. In the center was a giant, shimmering rock, that ushered water down one side, similar to a waterfall. At its base was a small reservoir of water that was used for a recreational pool. In the far left corner was a roomy, clean bar, stocked with the most refreshing liquors any being could find in any world. The right side held a lounge for relaxation and resting. Tall, beautiful trees were scattered throughout the entire room, and the ceiling was made of one gigantic sheet of glass. A sun shone through the glass, destroying any need for artificial lighting.

But there was one last distinctive trait about this room: It was filled with Seraphim.

Cyril marched through this paradise of a room, without paying heed to anything or anyone in the room. He was greeted by another pair of large, brooding doors. These doors were twice as tall before, and were also seven feet wide in length each. His right hand met the handle of the door just as another Seraphim approached him.

It was Leander, one of the few Seraphim that everyone despised. Unlike Cyril's celestial clothes of silver garments, and a golden chestplate, Leander sported black dark black garments, and a chestplate covered in with the color of a brooding hellfire, with wings that were an unsettling dark gray tone. Leander placed his right hand on Cyril's left shoulder, as if it was a friendly gesture.

"Come now friend, how can all of us other Seraphim be so happy when you look so plainly mad," he questioned Cyril. An obscure grin emerged from his two lips. "Relax a little." Leander cocked his head back a bit and waved his right hand around, trying to make it seem like they were good companions.

Cyril slowly turned his head to return the greeting, but only with a dead, cold stare. If Leander was not a Seraphim, Cyril would have killed him at that moment. Cyril only uttered three words to his "friend."

"Don't touch me."

Cyril then brushed off Leander's hand with his left arm, and proceeded to open the door.

"Oh, touchy aren't we?" Leander started to chuckle under his breath.

Cyril responded with silence, then stepped into the next hall, discarding Leander's attention. The other Seraphim were all staring at this scene, and as soon as Leander's gaze returned toward the room, away from Cyril, the other Seraphim resumed their relaxation. They did not want any trouble to brew in this beautiful oasis.

Another hall greeted him, this one was darker than night itself though, but was also short. He reached the opposite end, and opened another pair of doors which were similar to the previous ones. Now he was in a pitch black room, with only one single light glowing, creating a small, yellow circle on the floor. He stepped onto it.

The doors slammed shut. There was complete darkness in the room, save the one light Cyril was under. Cyril kneeled down on one leg, his head was aimed low at the ground, as if he was bowing down to that of a higher nobility level.

Then a loud, booming voice was heard. The voice came from every direction in the room, completely surrounding Cyril, making him seem like he was much smaller than he really was. Just the presence of the voice made Cyril feel inferior.

"What is it, Cyril?" the voice asked.

Cyril responded to the words of the unknown void, "My Majesty, someone launched an Infernal towards the planet I rule, Earth, just an hour ago." Cyril paused. "Without me knowing about it. Did you have anything to do with it?"

The voice responded instantaneously, "No, I did not. And if what you say is true, why are you here now, and not fending the beast off?"

"There is someone else on my planet that is well capable of destroying it. That is why I am here."

"You left your planet in the hands of 'someone else?' How callous of you." the voice got louder, and took a darker tone now. "Who is this, 'someone else' you speak of? Another Seraphim?"

"Yes, and no. He is a Potential Seraphim, but definitely strong enough to take out a low-class Infernal."

"Interesting. How are you sure of this?" the voice became more interested in the subject matter, and lost the dark tone it previously held.

Cyril was silent for a few moments.

"Well?" the voice started to get indignant.

"I... fought him." Cyril nodded his head, as if he was ashamed of this.

"You fought him?" the voice was more aggravated than curious at this point. "You do know that you are not allowed to interfere with the growth of a Potential Seraphim, correct?"

"Yes, I am sorry my Lord. But it seemed nec --"

"I do not care if it seemed necessary or not. You disobeyed orders. I will let you off easily this time, but if you interfere anymore, I will have to take the necessary precautions with you."

"Yes, Master." Cyril nodded in agreement.

The small Seraphim then started to work his way towards the door, even though he could not see it. He still knew it was there. And just as he was about to leave the room, the voice spoke again.

"I will permit you to investigate the Infernal matter, though."

Cyril turned around. The presence he felt before was no longer there.

"... thank you." Cyril smiled, then exited the empty room.

Steven helped Rea to haul Kitai up the stairs so that Kitai could rest in her bed. They placed him on the farthest side away from the door, making it much easier to hide his body if Rea's parents came in. They lay him on his back, and walked away. They exited the room, slowly closing the door. Then Rea asked the question that was most prominent in her mind.

"What happened to him?" she asked.

"Its an interesting and odd story at the same time. It seemed like something that would never happen at all."

"Well, what is it?" her voice was filled with deep concern for her lover.

"Mmm..." he thought about how he would phrase this. It would seem too far-fetched if he just stated that a giant fireball mixed with stones destroyed the city. "Do you have a TV in your house? They might explain it better."

"A... TV?" She was definitely curious at this point, and was anxious to know what happened. "Downstairs, follow me."

Rea led Steven back down the stairs, and into the kitchen. He threw him the remote control for the TV. Steven began flipping through stations, until he found the local news channel. The screen depicted the city of Phoenix, but it was not the same Phoenix that Rea was accustomed to seeing. Debris was piled up everywhere, ambulances dotted the streets, sirens dominated the air, and people were still lost in a mix of emotions.

"Oh my god..." Rea's concern shifted to the state of her city for a brief moment, and then switched back to Kitai. "What happened?" she asked the question again.

Steven still did not know how to explain the situation. He settled for a cheap excuse, "There was a meteor shower that hit the city."

Rea questioned the integrity of the answer given. "A meteor shower?"

"Yep."

Her eyes narrowed towards his face. "You sure?"

"Positive." he pushed his hands into his pockets.

"It wasn't something else?"

"Nope."

"Are you messing with me?"

"Definitely not."

"If you are, you're gonna have to worry more about how much your face hurts than why you just lied to me."

Suddenly the TV switched to a full-screen picture of Kitai, she caught a glimpse of it. Then the TV played part of the fighting scene, and she saw the huge blazing collection of rocks terrorizing the city. She shoved Steven out of the way, and grabbed the TV on the sides, her eyes enlarged in awe. That was her Kitai, the Kitai she knew and loved, that was flying. Flying?

"Steven. Did you know about this?" her voice was quite demanding this time. Her attention was still affixed to the ongoing characters on the screen.

"Well, yes. I was at school, unlike _some_ people." he tryed to lighten Rea's mood with a light joke.

"No. Not the monster. Kitai's powers." Rea didn't notice his attempted humor, still watching the television.

"Oh... that." his eyes moved upwards, as if the answer to the question was written on the kitchen ceiling. "Nope, had no clue."

She glared at him again. She doubted he was telling the truth, again.

"What? Honest!" his "honest" was a bit indignant this time.

She shrugged it off, and continued to watching the figures displayed on the monitor. Then the TV flashed the scenes where Kitai was bashed off to the side, and where he was launched straight for a building from the stream of jet fire. Her mouth gaped open. She started to cry.

"Here I was... thinking Kitai was dead, sobbing about it for three days, and he's out there slaying some type of demon?" she began to cry. "I'm such an idiot..."

Steven's cheerful smile quickly turned into a caring frown. He moved over to comfort Rea.

"Its ok. No one knew that he was out of the hospital, let alone flying around like some god or something." He began to try and hug Rea, but she shoved him aside, and she rushed upstairs, back to her room. "Ah... did I do something wrong?" he laughed a small, weak laugh, and turned back to the television set. They were replaying Kitai's fight scenes.

"Damn..."

Rea rushed up back to her sleeping beauty. She was greeted by a strange sight. The wings she saw that Kitai held during his magnificant duel were now fully visible and they wrapped around his body, as if they were protecting him from something. He emitted a faint, blue aura, and his burns and bruises were slowly but surely disappearing. Apparently Kitai could heal faster now because of his alien powers. Rea moved towards the body, and fell to her knees at the side of the bed. Her tears flowed easier and much faster now.

"Kitai..." her head was faced down into the bed, and her tears dampened the bed. After a brief moment, she raised her head, got onto the bed, and embraced Kitai's body. She placed her head on Kitai's chest, his wings moving to let her head touch his chest, as if they were alive. She stayed there, her head resting on Kitai's chest, weeping. She would not let go of the person she cared about most, she did not want anything to happen to him anymore.

"Kitai, don't leave me." Her cries filled the room with sadness.

Cyril opened the towering twenty foot doors, squinting his eyes as the light from the sun met his eyes. He breathed a sigh of relief. The meeting he planned with the Almighty went worse than he had planned. Cyril did not mean to mention that he had battled with Kitai, which could of been grounds for banishment. Luckily though, Cyril was definitely on His good side. He headed over to the bar and ordered his usual beer.

"Kirin Ichiban, please."

"Sure thing." replied the stout bartender.

The bartender turned his attention to the shelves of drinks and glasses behind him. He stretched an arm out, and a bottle of Cyril's drink floated outward from the plethora of liquors. He walked over to it, grabbed it, and pulled out a glass bottle from below the counter. He slid the bottle and glass toward Cyril.

"Thanks."

"No problem." The bartender returned to his normal duties of drying off the cups, even though he didn't have to. It was just something to do to pass the time.

A figure started to approach Cyril while he was drinking and took a seat next to Cyril. He ordered his own beer that he would typically get, and the bartender complied in the same fashion as before. The figure turned his attention to Cyril now, and not his beverage.

"So how did it go?"

Cyril glanced toward the angel. It was Leander.

"Hmm?" Leander seemed curious, curious in a bad way.

Cyril looked back down to his drink, and ignored the black and crimson Seraphim.

"Come now, you can't ignore a fellow Seraphim like that, can you? We're all f --"

Cyril had it with this man. He quickly slammed the bottle of the beer down on the counter and smashed in Leander's face with his clenched fist, breaking the beer bottle Leander was drinking along with several teeth.

"Let me make this clear. You and I are **far** from friends." his voice was clear and annoyed.

Leander got up from the blow, and wiped off the blood that showed from the corner of his lip. He grinned. "Do that again and I can get you banished." The two angels stood there, staring each other as if in another moment, one would pull out a weapon and kill the other.

The other onlooking Seraphim just stared. If there was one thing that everyone knew about Cyril, it was this: It was definitely a rare sighting to see him mad. A heavy atmosphere of silence filled the air. The once loud, boisterous room was now experience a silence that never before befall the room. No one knew what to do, nor did anyone _want_ to do anything.

Cyril scanned the room. He noticed that everyone was staring at him and Leander. Cyril let all his tension go away through one deep breath, and straightened his back, standing normally. He let out a second deep breath. Cyril said nothing, and headed towards his lair. He did not want to see any of the Seraphims' faces at that point, especially Leander's.

The other Seraphim's gaze turned toward Leander as Cyril left the room. It most definitely was a stunning sight to see. Few things have made Cyril mad before, and one of those was not Leander. Leander grinned though. He finally found Cyril's weakpoint, or at least part of it. He was sure to exploit this to no end. He, too, left that room, to go towards his own lair. He began to comtemplate Cyril's end, and how he would go about it. He began to laugh, an evil, marading, maniacal laugh.

Once Cyril isolated himself in his room, an image of a place on Earth appeared on the floor. The image was of Phoenix, Arizona, a place still in chaos.

"That bastard." Cyril's train of thought shifted from the city to Leander. Cyril knew Leander had launched the Infernal to Phoenix, but he had no proof. He hated that angel even more. He was disgusted that Leander was still a Seraphim as well.

Then he shook off the thoughts about Leander and payed attention to the city now, not because it was in shambles, but because Kitai was near that location. Cyril knew that the city would eventually get back on his feet. He was worried more about Kitai though.

Cyril walked toward the edge of the image, his wings emerged as he his feet met the edge. Then he slowly leaned downwards, and free-fell into the projection. His body fell straight down, and he now appeared far about the city in the sky. He searched for Kitai's angelic aura, and found it with ease. He flew downward, spiraling in and out, as if someone was trying to shoot him down.

The clock marked seven PM in Arizona. Rea's head still rested on Kitai, with thoughts of worry, sadness, happiness, despair, love and pain all coursing through her mind. She gripped his body tighter now, closer. She would not be able to stand losing Kitai, not one bit. She loved him too much. Her tears had stopped though.

She started to raise her head, to check to see if Kitai was awake at this point. He wasn't, still asleep to her dissapointment. She got up, got off the bed, and headed towards the bathroom to wash off her tears. She headed downstairs, and noticed that Steven was long gone. She regretted forgetting to say goodbye to him, but the feeling passed. She decided to go shopping to get some things for Kitai, and also for her own persnoal needs, after checking on Kitai one last time though. She headed up the stairs, and reached the door, until she heard something inside the room. Her face lightened, and she became happy at the thought of Kitai being awake. She quickly opened the door.

"Kit... ai?" her voice changed from excitement to fear. She saw Cyril, with his silver clothing and golden armor and his wings folded, but visible, examining the body, looking over it. She feared the man looming over Kitai's body. She was just about to scream when she heard the figure speak something to her.

"Don't scream. Its all right." he said, in a cool, calming manner. His head was still locked on Kitai's body.

"How did you know I was going to scream?" she was more scared than ever.

"I'm a telepath."

"Tele... path? Those exist?"

"Yes, and no."

"Yes... and no?"

"Yes."

"Yes?"

"Uh... no."

"No?"

Cyril realized that this was going to get him nowhere. He breathed deeply yet again, and let it out. He motioned for the girl to come closer.

"Come. And no, I won't hurt you."

Rea walked over, curious as to what he was looking at.

"Uhm..."

"Cyril. My name is Cyril."

"Oh..."

"And yes, I know you are Rebecca."

She suddenly became quiet.

"Don't worry. I don't read thoughts _too_ much." he smiled quickly turning his head to meet her stare, and let a quiet laugh out. His gaze returned to Kitai afterwards. "Now, notice anything odd about Kitai?"

"Uhm... his wings?"

"Odd..."

"Hmm?"

"You can see them?" he asked again.

"The wings?"

"Yes."

"Yes, I can." she became curious once more.

"Interesting."

Her head turned towards the angel.

"I can see yours too." she pointed out.

"Interesting..." he muttered again.

"Huh?"

"Nothing." he brushed the thought of it off. "Anyway, if you didn't know already, then Kitai has special, inhuman abilities."  
"Yes, I knew that. The news covered it, or at least, showed clips of it." the images of the television scenes flashed through her head. Cyril read her thoughts and picked the images up.

"He fared better than I expected..."

"Did you see the report too?"

"No."

"Then ho --" she paused, and restated her question. "Oh, you read my mind again?"

"Exactly."

Rea let out a groan. She was getting tired of having her mind read.

"Hmmm, I suppose I owe you an introduction. And an explanation as well."

"Yes, yes you do." her voice was demanding now.

Cyril's head turned toward her.

"I mean... uh, that would be appreciated?" she faked a smile to please the angel before her.

"Humans..." Cyril let out a short sigh, turned his head to Kitai, and started again. "You see, I am a Seraphim. Seraphims are angelic beings that were once human, but now rule the galaxy they were raised in. We control various functions of the nature of things, and many more forces." he started to trail off, making sure that he told her nothing detailed. "Every one thousand years, God decrees that a new Seraphim must be selected. So, every thousand years, to execute God's will, five people are endowed with a special factor, the Angelus Factor. Kitai has this factor, making him a Potential Seraphim. Potential Seraphim contain abilities similar to those of a Seraphim as myself, but not as potent." he turned back to Rea. "Get all of that?"

She nodded a weak nod. "Yes, and no." she giggled a bit.

Cyril laughed as well. "Ah, to be human again..."

"Hmm?" Rea did not catch what he said.  
"Oh, nothing." Cyril pulled his hand out, and looked at it. "To be human again..." he whispered this to himself and his mind seemed to wander off.

Rea looked at him oddly, wondering if something was wrong.

"No, I'm ok."

"Stop that! Stop reading my mind!"

"Sorry, old habits die hard." he laughed again. "Well, I've got to go check up on the state of the city anyway. Kitai will be ok, he won't die from something like this. So you can carry on with your life and shop around. Oh, and also.." he paused, and raised an eyebrow at her. "... at least you're worrying about protection." Cyril shaked his head dissaprovingly.

Rea's face became flushed, and began to blush. "Well... me and Kitai..." she started to play with her hands, staring down at them.

Cyril nodded again. "I guess it is inevitable with two people like you anyway."

"Ah..." Rea blushed harder now. "Wait... I thought I told you to stop that!" she was mad at him again for reading her mind.

"And **I** thought I told you that old habits die hard." he laughed once more.

"Hmph." she sighed angrily.

Cyril started to head towards the window. His wings fanned out as much as the small bedroom would let them. He pushed open the window, ready to fly out. He turned back to face Rea one last time.

"Have fun." he quietly laughed to himself.

"Get out of here!" Rea threw the nearest object at him, which happened to be a pillow. "Get out, get out, get out!"

Cyril laughed louder now, and flew out, dissapeared from sight.

Rea's arms dropped down, and she let out a sigh. She affixed her gaze to Kitai, and her heart became filled with content. She smiled, and moved towards the body. She ran her hand through Kitai's hair, kissed him on the cheek, then headed off for her errands.


	6. Chapter 7 Friend and Foe

Kitai awoke from his deep slumber to realize that all of his wounds were healed. His hand ran up and down his body, pressing the areas that once held deep scars that seemingly would never go away. "These angel powers... are so awesome." he laughed a bit, which turned into a bit of a cough towards the end. He cleared his throat, and then moved his hand to his side. Only until he rested his hand did he notice that Rea was sleeping next to her. He glanced over at the body, and noticed that she was only wearing her bare undergarments. He blushed heavily, and looked down to where his hand was. It was on one of her breasts.

"Aaaah!" he yelled, and quickly moved his hand away. Then Rea's eyes blinked, and she rose from her sleep. She rubbed her eyes, looking around, and remembered that Kitai was in the same bed.

"Oh, good morning Kitai." she said in a sweet, loving tone as she rubbed her eyes.

"Uhm, good morning Rea." he replied in a manner just as sweet as Rea's. He then re-examined Rea, and blushed again.

Rea noticed what he was staring at, and grinned. "Mmmm... did you find something interesting to stare at?"

"Uh... yes..." he replied in a timid manner.

"Hmm, what would that be?" she asked, feigning ignorance.

"Well..." he began to blush harder now. "... you, you're..."

"Yes?" she moved closer, intimidating him.

"Ah..." he paused, admiring her smooth skin, and rather large cup size, "your... panties... and... bra..." he paused after each word, glancing back and forth between certain areas of her scantily clad body.

"Oh?" she giggled. "Would you like a more... private look?"

Kitai began to sweat. He had never been in a situation like this before, but, very true to his nature, he was enjoying it. "Yes... that would be nice..." Kitai drooled in his mind at the thought.

"Hmm... I dunno..." If Rea had to list her favorite thing to do with Kitai, it would be teasing him, as she loved it. And now was no exception to this. "Like this?" She grabbed one of her breasts and began to move it around. "Mmm..."

Kitai could not take it anymore. He wanted her badly, in every way, in bad ways, in lustful ways, in romantic ways, in any way possible. He pushed Rea down onto the bed, and moved over on top of her. He started to lower his body, and there chests met.

Rea started to blush in reaction to this, she didn't think that Kitai was this straight forward. Nevertheless, she enjoyed it. She enjoyed the thought of their bodies touching each other, she enjoyed how she caressed Kitai's hair, and moved her hand along his back. She loved being in Kitai's presence. It made her feel... complete. And she could tell that Kitai loved it just as much as she did.

"Kitai..." she began to speak.

"Rea..."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Then their sweet lips met. They could not wait any longer. Kitai moved his head closer toward Rea's, their mouths making contact, and their heads swayed side to side, enjoying each and every second their lips were locked together. The sweet taste of Kitai's lips against her lips only fed the fire that burned in her heart for him. She lusted for Kitai in every way imagineable. Rea began to move her hands lower down Kitai's body. Lower, and lower, and lower...

Then a sudden noise interupted their session of mad, wild love. Someone was knocking the door of the bedroom. Kitai and Rea's eyes flared open, and Kitai's body shot up, off of Rea's body.

"Rea? Is someone else in there?" It was Rea's mother. Apparently she thought she heard something and came to investigate. "Come on, open up." she demanded.

"Ah! No, no one's in here mother!" Rea motioned for Kitai to go out of the window real quick. "If she finds you in here, she'll kill me!" she whispered to him.

Kitai only nodded in response, and commanded his wings to flourish. They complied, and he was quickly out of the room. Rea quickly put on a shirt and shorts, then proceeded to answer the door.

"Good morning mom." she greeted her with a smile.

"Rea... was someone in here?" Her mom glanced over her daughter's shoulder.

"Nope, no one. Why would you think someone would be here?"

"I thought I heard someone else in here..." she began to wonder about what she had heard.

"Well, no one was in here besides me. You must've been hearing things."

"Hmm..." she was just about to leave when another question popped up in her mind, "Oh, and you seem to be in a good mood today. Did something happen last night?"

Rea thought about what happened last night. Yes, something good definitely happened, but nothing she wanted to talk to her mother about. "Yes, but nothing tremendous." was her reply.

"Hmm... well, I'm making breakfast, or at least about to. Come downstairs in about 20 minutes."

"Sure thing mom."

Her mother turned to go downstairs, and Rea turned as well, closing the door. She walked towards the window, and poked her head outside of it, looking for Kitai.

"Kitai? Where'd you go?" she yelled out, but quiet enough so her mom would not hear, or any residents in her house either.

Then a figure dropped down from the roof of the house, and began floating in front of Rea's face.

"Right here." he smirked. He floated towards Rea's beautiful, smiling face.

She giggled. "Sorry Kai, but I've got to go. Breakfast and parents." She spun her eyes in circles as she said this.

"Awww, it was just getting good too."

"Tee hee, maybe next time." she blew a kiss to him, but he wanted more.

He moved close enough to kiss her, and then their lips met again, this time more sweet and satisfying than the first. They froze there, with Rea standing in her room, and Kitai, floating outside the window, kissing. Rea's hands weaved through Kitai's hair and along his neck, smooth enough to make Kitai long for her more. One of Kitai's hand was moving along her head, caressing it and not allowing her to back out of their passionate love. His other hand moved along her chest, sliding along, allowing him to feel her tender and delicate skin. They loved this feeling, this feeling of passion and overwhelming love. They had longed for each other that when they kissed, everything in their body was at rest, and the only thing they wanted was each other.

Then her mother called again, as if she was intentionally trying to break up the scene, the scene she was unaware of.

They both sighed. They wanted to just be with each other, but fate was cruel, and one of her parents was calling for her.

"I'll call you?" Rea asked.

"I don't have a --" Kitai just remembered that he was bare naked himself, but didn't mind it at that point. He moved his hand to his left back pocket, where he had placed the phone his brother gave him. Thankfully it still worked. Apparently his butt could shield his posessions from a fervid flame better than his chest could. "I do have a phone! Here's the number, 302-501-2901."

"Oh, wait, let me write it down..."

"No, s'ok." he ripped the tape off the back of the phone. "Here."

"Ah, thanks. Buh-bye Kai, my love." she blew one last kiss.

"Goodbye, Rea, my love."

She headed towards her bedroom door, without moving her attention to anything else until she exited the room. He could faintly hear her mother calling for her as the door was opened.

Kitai resumed checking his pockets. He groped for his wallet in his back pocket with his right hand, and found that it was still in pretty good shape, except for the fact that the leather was slightly melted. His credit card was still intact though. His front pocket held nothing, as there was none anymore. Angry, he thought to himself.

"There goes her present..." Kitai sighed. That meant that he would have to go and buy another while shopping. Kitai hated shopping.

Phoenix was in shambles, there was no way that any stores would be open. But he didn't know where any malls were outside of Delaware. Again, he had nothing to do. He did not want to return to the city though, as news reporters would be asking him so many questions that he wouldn't be surprised if he threw punches at them instead of answers. So, he decided to have some fun flying around before Rea called.

His auxilary wings fanned out, and he rushed upwards toward the high skies. Thankfully there weren't any aircrafts in the immediate vicinity, so no one could see him fooling him around. Then Kitai began to flatten his body horizontally again, and he performed many maneveurs that jet fighters and the like would use to dodge oncoming assaults.

Suddenly a familiar body to him, unseen by Kitai, came rushing down, sliced for Kitai with his axe.

Kitai surpisingly evaded the attack, without so much as a quick glance to analyze his enemy. His own weapon quickly emerged, and he sliced for his foe. The figure flew over Kitai, and reared his axe yet again, ready to attack his back. Kitai quickly realized that his enemy was behind him, and pulled his sword around, swinging wide, and when he was fully turned around, an axe was in his face, yet his sword was also in his enemy's face. It was a stalemate.

Kitai was shocked to see who his opponent was: Cyril.

"You've certainly gotten better." Cyril remarked. He waved his hands, and his axe dissapeared from sight.

"So I guess that you like fighting to greet people?" Kitai asked his angelic mentor, placing his sword back into its invisible sheath. "Because, I certainly don't."

Cyril smirked. "I wanted to see if you got better from your last fight."

"Yea, I did, so what? And you seem happier then usual." Kitai locked onto Cyril's smile. "You only smile when you're fighting, and we're not fighting."

"Oh? Is that so?"

"Yes, yes it is."

"Hmm, I guess that is partly true."

"So what happened?"

Cyril wondered about this matter as well. What made him so different now than a few days ago, to make it seem like he was happier? Nothing dramatic occured recently, nothing that would make him happy anyway. Then he recalled his conversation with Rea, and his memories finally came rushing back to him; his memories of being human. He remembered having human emotions, flaws, responsibilities, friends, and most importantly, he remembered the woman that he would have wed if he had the chance. It was painful for Cyril to remember this, but he had been a Seraphim for so long, he had forgotten all about his past life. He... missed it.

Kitai stared at Cyril who seemed to be lost in thought, and interrupted. "Uh, sorry to break your day dream, but I've got some more questions for ya." Kitai let out a smile.

"Hmph. Fine, but I'll only answer your questions if you answer mine."

Kitai was a bit shocked, why would Cyril have a question for him? "Sounds fair enough. Shoot."

Cyril paused for effect, "Do you like being human?" he asked.

The question stabbed at Kitai like a blunt dagger in the chest. What kind of question was this? Kitai thought of an answer, and could not immediately come up with one. He didn't necessarily like being human, but he did like being human. A contradiction, a paradox. Even if people did make fun of him, insult him, hit him, maim him, and ridicule him, he still liked being human because as a human, he could love. As a human, he could love the most important person in his life, Rea. Kitai finally gave an honest answer. "Yes, I love being human."

"Of course..." Cyril's glare shifted downward, in a timid fashion, as if he was ashamed of asking the question. He lifted his hand again, and stared at it like before. "Human..."

KItai interrupted him yet again. "My turn."

Cyril's face shot up, and he looked at Kitai, ready to respond once more.

"What was that thing anyway? The thing I fought yesterday." he inquired angrily.

"An Infernal."

"Infernal? Who named it that?"

"We did, the Holy Order."

"So you've fought them before?"

"Well, yes. Infernals are monstrous beasts that..." Cyril paused, he did not want to finish his reply, but he was forced to. "... we, the Seraphim and God control."Kitai was amazed at the answer. "You **control** them yourselves? So that means someone launched Earth one?" KItai asked in a more furious manner than before.

"Yes."

"Did you launch it here?"

"No, another Seraphim did."

"On purpose?"

"More than likely, yes. Infernals can't do anything by themselves, except run rampant on planets."

"Do you know who it was?"

"No, but I have my suspicions as to who did it."

"So Seraphim aren't supposed to use those?"

"Only if God tells us to."

Satisified with this answer, Kitai asked his next question, one irrevelant to his first. "How does one Seraphim get chosen from the five endowed with that whatever-factor?"

Cyril did not want to answer this question either. There was an odd silence emanating from him.

"Well?" Kitai was getting more and more anxious, as his previous question did not have a desireable answer.

"A test of skill and might: they fight to the death." Cyril paused, as if he dissaproved of this method. "The last one standing becomes the next Seraphim."

Kitai lost his breath, and his heart sank, he looked down, and grabbed his heart, trying to ease the pain. "Kill...?"

"Yes." Cyril did not like the answer either, as he had to go through this trial as well.

"I'm supposed to kill four other people?"

"Is it really that hard?" Cyril pointed towards the city of Phoenix. "Look how many people died there."

This hurt Kitai even more. He had completely forgotten about the casulties in the city from the Infernal; he was too caught up in seeing Rea. The thought did not cross his mind until this moment. A tear dropped from his eye, and the familiar emotional landslide began to form. "I... can't believe... I forgot about..." Kitai was crying too much to finish his sentence.

Cyril tried to comfort Kitai with a few words, "Its ok."

Kitai's head propped up, and his eyes were filled with rage. "Ok? Having all those people die is 'ok' for you? Those people lost their lives for some stupid reason that neither of us know of, and its 'ok' with you? Are you some type of monster too?"

Cyril's face kept the stern expression it always held, even at the insult. "I can say its all right because I've lived for one thousand years. Time comes and goes, and I've seen many people die. Many."

"So that justifies having all those people down there die? Does it?"

"No, but am I really supposed to be sad at it?"

"Yes! Why wouldn't you, they died! **Died!**"

Cyril became aggravated. "You don't know how much pain I felt when I saw people I knew and loved die. I've grown used to it, and these people are nowhere near as important as them."

"Nowhere near as important?" Kitai shouted the question at him, and his sword suddenly appeared. "So some people have some type of priority over others?"

Cyril wrathfully responded to Kitai's comment, "Do you know what it is like to see your best friend die right next to you, and live for one thousand years after that with the same image, the same memory, the same statement he said in your words? Do you know what it feels like to see millions of millions of people die in wars because of stupid disputes? Do you know what it is like to see **all** of this and live on? No, you don't."

Kitai was silent. He could not even begin to comprehend the suffering Cyril must've felt from so many deaths of his friends. Kitai suddenly felt sorry for Cyril.

Silence befell their meeting. Minutes passed before Cyril finally said something.

"I've said too much. I'll be taking my leave." Cyril began to fly off, to wherever Seraphim fly off to when they go back to their lair. "And I won't be making as much contact as before."

Kitai looked up and asked, with tears still in his eyes, "Why?"

"I was never supposed to come in contact with you, or Rea." With that, Cyril disappeared.

"Wait!" Kitai reached out, trying to grab Cyril, but it was futile.

His phone began to ring. He dried off his tears, and answered it, "Hey, Rea."

The voice on the phone sounded surprised. "How did you know it was me?"

"Heh, you're the only person I've given this number to."

"Oh. Well anyway, my parents want to help do _something_ in the city, and they want me to come with. Sorry, I'll be gone the whole day."  
"Eh? No fair..." Kitai became distraught at the fact that he had to wait another day to see his precious Rea.

"Yea, but I can't help it. I'm sorry."

"Nah, its ok. See you tomorrow then?"

"Sure thing!" It seemed as though Rea's enthusiam was revitilazed at the thought. "I love you!"

"I love you too, Rea."

"Goodbye."

"Bye."

They hung up.

Again, Kitai decided to go shopping again, back in Delaware. Since Rea would not be available all day, and he didn't want to be seen around Arizona, he flew off, embarking on yet another expedition to buy Rea's gift.

"Stupid Infernal."

Back in Delaware, Zift (Kitai's best friend) was at the Christiana Mall himself, shopping for the latest video games and mangas. He walked out of the book store carrying a bag filled with his treasured mangas. That was one thing off his checklist. He headed over to the foodcourt, starving for something to eat. He grabbed a quick slice of pizza from the pizzeria, and put his belongings down along with his pizza on the nearest table. He began consuming the italian dish, when he overheard the conversation from the girl's gossip in the vicinity.

"... that Kitai guy is pretty amazing isn't he?" the first girl, a brunette asked.

"Yea, I know. He stopped a group of terrorists, and it was that one guy, uh... what was his name?" the second girl, a blonde inquired this question.

"Uhm, Vertigo I think."

"That's who it was!"

"So, what about him?"

"You didn't hear the news? Vertigo was a wanted man!"  
"Oh, really?" the brunette became even more curious now.

"You really should watch the news more often. Vertigo tried pulling off what he did at Kitai's school twice before."

"Twice?"

"Yep. And this time, Kitai beat him out."

"Wow..."

"Yea, pretty amazing right?"

"Definitely. He must be one amazing guy..."

The two girls finished their meals, and began walking off, taking their conversation with them.

Zift slammed his fist against the table in total detestation at the reminder of the events that took place days ago. Kitai, his best friend, had become so much better than him, in the matter of moments! How could this happen? They both were evenly matched in basically anything they've done before, and yet, Kitai somehow became a hero? Zift's heart became filled with anger and jealousy as he greedily finished his meal and chucked it at the trashbin. He grabbed his purchases, and headed off for the bathrooms. He pushed open the doors to the lavatories with jealousy still in control of his thoughts. He did not even notice the fact that he wasn't heading into the actual bathroom for the mall. Somehow, when he opened the doors, he was launched into another dimension, far away from the mall. He didn't realize this until he turned to open the doors that would usually be there, but they weren't. He suddenly became scared now, as he was surrounded by darkness in every direction.

A light appeared from the top of this odd room, where the ceiling would normally be, but there was none in this peculiar room. He instinctively squinted to the shimmering ray, and he raised his hand to block it. His eyes slowly adjusted, and he noticed a figure that was not there before.

"Who the hell are you?" he shouted to the silhoutte, anger had been renewed inside of him.

"How insubordinative of you."

"Insubordinative? I'll show you insubordinative! Show yourself!" Zift's hands clenched into fists, as if they were ready to break someone's jaw.

The outline of a man walked towards Zift, and he revealed himself to have a dark garment draped around him, with a crimson red breastplate guarding his chest. "I am Leander. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"Pleasure? Where the hell am I?"

"Jeez, humans these days. So easily angered." Leander scoffed at Zift's question. "You are in my home, my abode. Welcome."

"I don't feel welcomed. Now get me out of here, I need to use the damned bathroom, and I doubt you want me to take a piss in here."

"You inferirior little..."

"Inferior? Just shut up with that crap and let me out of here. I've got no business with you."

Zift's anger had lit Leander's short temper. Leander was ready to kill the boy there and then, but he needed him. He needed him to get rid of Cyril, and that punk Kitai that Cyril admired so well. "You're damn lucky I need you..."

"Need me? For what?" Zift's anger began to fade away, and he became more timid, he wanted his answers.

Leander dodged the questions with a question of his own."You want to become better than Kitai, don't you?"

Zift was startled at the man's question. How did he know that he wanted to be better than his friend? "Who are you?"

"I'm... God." a grin appeared on Leander's face.

"Then do some godly powers or something to prove that."

"Fine." Leander then uttered those powerful words, "Damnate ego pennas." Dark gray wings stemmed from his back, making Zift stand in awe. Zift shook off the thought of having those wings, and asked yet another question.

"So, how do you know I want to be stronger than Kitai?"

"Humans are easy to read, and I am, God, after all." he let out an evil laugh. "I can easily grant you godlike powers if you want."

"Whats the catch?" Zift's eyes narrowed onto Leander, knowing that there would be something he would have to exchange for the powers.

"Nothing. Nothing that you need anyway."

"Nothing I need?"

"Nothing you need." he repeated.

Zift evaluated the deal. He would be granted godlike abilities in exchange for nothing he needs? Sounded oddly suspcious, but he accepted the offer anyway. "Fine. Gimme those powers."

"As you wish." Leander then gravitated closer to the young boy, and reached his right arm out to Zift's chest. His hand made contact, and he started to squeeze, but it was not a physical squeeze. It was an odd feeling for Zift, there was no pain, and yet it hurt. It hurt... spiritually. Leander's grip tightened more and more with each elapsed second, until Zift could not bare the pain. He shouted, screamed, yelled for anyone to help. He feared what would happen next, and his pants became wet with an awful stench.

"A bastard until the end, eh?" Leander grinned again, and he let loose a maniacal laugh. His laugh echoed through the empty room, and Zift's eyes shot wide open for a moment. He was truly afraid of the man looming over him now.

Leander finally stopped tightening his grip, and then he summoned some of his spiritual powers. Zift began to fade in and out, although he was not dead, yet. A dark sphere materialized from Zift's body whenever he faded out, until he finally stopped phasing in and out, and Zift's body became physical once more. Leander pulled his arm back halfway, and he called for the dark sphere that he had created in Zift's body. The ball hovered to his beckoning arm. He caught the sphere, and started to inspect it. He saw a spirit inside of it, screaming to get out of its new cage. The voice that was let out sounded ghastly and tormented, but although the spirit did not seem human at all, the voice resembled a once-human person. The spirit that was now locked inside the ethereal pen was Zift.

Leander's laugh was hysterical. He now held the key to his success, and the end of Cyril, his most hated rival.

The body that was once Zift's now became Leander's, a doll just for him to play with.

Kitai emerged from the jewelry store in the Christiana Mall district victorious. This time he bought an even more extravagant gold ring, studded with a beautiful emerald acommpanied by two diamonds on each side. He was satisfied with his purchase yet again. He whistled about, envisioning what Rea's response would be to this elebarote golden wonder. He departed from the strip mall, happy with his purchase. He was just about to call forth his wings to fly back home when he felt the presence of another angel. Probably Cyril again, he thought. He beckoned for his sword to appear. He turned around, ready to deflect one of Cyril's attacks.

But Kitai was wrong. Zift was approaching Kitai, not Cyril.

Startled, Kitai quickly made his sword vanish, wondering if Zift had noticed it. "Hey Zift, whats up? Long time no see eh?" Kitai bellowed a short laugh to try and distract Zift away from his sword, until he noticed Zift's eyes. The pupils had merged with the iris. When Kitai gazed into Zift's eyes, they felt... _empty_. Zift still approached Kitai. "Zift, are you ok?" Kitai asked.

The Zift he once knew was no more. The body that was once Zift's charged forward, and landed a solid punch in Kitai's face. Kitai flew back, smashing into a car. The car's alarm system went off, and gathered attention. Kitai wiped the blood off of the corner of his lip, and stared straight at Zift. What _was_ Zift now?

Zift's fists opened up, and two dark spheres emerged. A blood red swirl revolved around the sphere, and then Zift grasped for them, his hands encompassed his spheroidal embodiements of evil. Odd sword-like blades materialized onto his fore arms. Where the hilt would normally be on a normal sword was an enormous padded guard that held the sword to the arm, and where the wrist of his hand began was where the sword's deadly edge jutted out from. He wielded a sharp blade on each arm.

With his newly acquired weapons, Zift rushed yet again to meet his opponent, who was still downed by the car. He let out a furious swipe with his right arm, that would've been deadly, had someone been there. The slice emitted a powerful shockwave in the direction of the cut that rippled onward, even past the edge of the sword. The wave cut the other cars in half one after another, in a domino effect. Kitai was high above in the sky though, as he had dodged the attack with his wings. He still did not know what to do.

Zift stared emptily at Kitai's airborne abilities, as if he was admiring them. No one was in that body to admire them though. Then Zift, without even saying the enchantment, let loose his brooding wings. A dark aura conjured around him yet again, and his wings were colored an even more ominous red than his spheres burned off. Zift fanned his wings out, and in a split-second, his blades were upon Kitai.


	7. Chapter 8 Seeds of Torment

Kitai rushed to pull his sword out along with his spheres, blocking Zift's second attack. He realized that if he did not fight, then he would simply die. Kitai could not die here; he would not allow his friend to kill him. Although Zift's right armblade was caught in a sword lock, he still had his left hand to attack with. Zift quickly seized this chance and aimed a second slice for Kitai. Kitai blocked the attack with his left hand, wincing as the lethal blade cut into his hand, slowly and painfully. There was only one thing Kitai could do to ameloriate his situation. Root.

The two figures darkened, making Zift look even more threatening. Zift tilted his head, wondering what just happened to him. Kitai would not let this chance go by, and so he called upon his four remaining spheres. The four blue balls of energy began to dance around Kitai, spinning around him in a counter-clockwise fashion and moving far away from him, and then closing back in. They started to burn into four bright, incandescent flames. Kitai was preparing his attack. Zift tried to break free from his chains, but there was no possible way to break the restraint. He remained locked in his stance, much like Kitai was. The four spheres then took positions surrounding Zift: above his head, below him, and to his sides. They burned brighter and brighter, until Kitai finally let out the command for his minions to attack, "Throw Spirit Sphere!"

The beaming spheres of energy attacked Zift one after another, making sure the most damage could be dealt. The sphere above his head was the last to crash into Zift, and when it did, it caused Zift to fall towards the ground. Kitai sped up the process by batting his friend downward to the ground with the dull edge of his blade, making sure not to kill him. Even though Zift was not his enemy, Kitai wanted to believe that there was _some_ hope of returning Zift to his original self.

Zift was hurled toward the ground below him, spinning with no control of anything. He finally landed straight into a car, causing the car to buckle, the front and back end propped up while the middle part which was impacted by Zift bent downward. Glass shards spewed in every direction, denting the other cars in the vicinity. Kitai floated above, touching his wounded hand with his other hand, in an attempt to heal it like Cyril was able to heal his wound. It was a success, the blood stopped gushing out, and the wound vanished. Kitai looked back down to see if his enemy had recovered from the battle scar that he had inflicted, but Zift was still buried in the wreckage. Kitai was too scared to search the wreckage himself in fear that Zift might come bursting out.

A minute passed, Zift did not move.

Suddenly, the car exploded.

The fumes from the explosion flew to Kitai, and he coughed in response. He kept his eyes locked onto the wreckage though, making sure Zift would not surprise him. Then the giant metallic fireball ceased, and the fire was starting to gather into one spot, as if it was being routed there. Kitai looked harder. Zift was standing now, and his left hand was reaching out to the flames, calling them to his hand. He split the fireball between his two hands, and hurled the one in his left at Kitai, following it closely behind himself. Kitai dodged the flaming ball with ease, and was anticipating Zift to come up as well. Zift followed it just like Kitai thought, and Kitai braced himself for an attack. Zift started rapidly thrusting at Kitai with his left armblade, each strike was so powerful that Kitai could feel small sonicbooms created by them, brushing his hair to the side. Kitai was still evading his enemy's attacks though, and slightly backing up to compensate for Zift's forward moving motion.

Zift's right hand still concealed one of the embers, and he was poised to launch a surprise attack. When Kitai finally was not able to dodge one of his attacks, he used his sword to block the oncoming sword. Zift took this chance, and hurled his hidden fiery blast straight for Kitai's chest. The attack was too quick for Kitai to react, and he recieved massive burns from the ball as it disintegrated from attacking his chest. Kitai started to weeze and gasp, but Zift did not give him time to recover. He quickly seized the chance and knocked Kitai downward with a brute roundhouse kick to his chest.

Kitai fell to the hard pavement, scratching nearly every part of his body as he rolled along from the attack. Zift was not through yet though, as his two hands summoned a dark fire, which he tossed into the air. He then stabbed the fire with his two swordblades, igniting them with a gruesome fiery aura. He moved into a stance which seemed like he was about to throw various punches, and then let his arms loose. His arms performed a punching motion, launching a fiery blast each time he executed a punch. He let loose a massive volley of jabs, as if his two arms were gatling guns that had gone haywire. The flaming discharges seeked Kitai's body, and Kitai was too hurt to react. Fire after fire hit his already worn body, burning it, scorching it, incinerating it. After there was too much smoke that had built up to see his enemy, Zift finally stopped his deadly onslaught.

He waited, and saw nothing. He heard a noise he was familiar with emerge from the smoke but, like Kitai, was too scared to check, even if he was souless. He could've been taken advantage of if he rushed in too fast. He waited the smoke out, and just before the last blockade of black incense was about to burn away, Kitai emerged, with his four wings fanned out perfectly and his five spheres deployed. He flew straight for Zift, his sword reared and ready to slice whatever got in its way. Zift poised himself, ready to counterattack Kitai's assault.

Kitai dissapeared in front of Zift's eyes. Zift scanned the battlefield, above, below, to the sides, as his enemy vanished from his frontside. He slowly turned to his backside, but it was too late. Kitai had used Snap to get to his open spot, and now held a vantage point. Kitai's blade struck clean, and smashed straight into Zift's body, still with only the blunt side though. Zift was launched horizontally for some odd reason, not towards the ground. Was this also part of Kitai's plan to save his lost friend?

No, it wasn't. Just as Zift began to regain his balance, Kitai Snapped to his backside again, and this time smashed him down, toward the rock hard ground. Just before his head reached the ground, Kitai saved him again, with another brutal blow. An upward launch, Zift was now free-falling in the wrong direction. At the peak of his ascension, Kitai was ready to meet him. Kitai yelled his next blow in his devestating combo out loud with great fervor now, "Occult Impaction!"

His sword glowed his nostalgic blue aura, and so did he. He spun his sword, making it a drill, and thrusted it full force into Zift's vulnerable body. Zift was launched perfectly vertical now, straight for the ground at unmeasurable speed. His flight created a loud boom that rattled everything in a circular wake when he smacked into the ground. Kitai descended quickly, ready to deal his final blow. As he descended to the crash site of Zift, he began performing front flips, as if he was giving off a show. He gained a mighty momentum by doing this, and when he finally reached the ground, his sword slashed Zift at the area of his Occult Impaction wound. The impact of Kitai's blade created a resounding wave that toppled the already rattled vehicles.

Kitai quickly jumped backwards to assess the damages he had been dealt, and the damages he dealt to his foe. Burned and bruised everywhere, even worse than the Infernal had done, Kitai began to heal his battle worn body. He assembled his spheres as a precaution.

"Zift?" Kitai wondered if his enemy would respond to his old name.

He didn't. Zift remained silent.

After Kitai healed most of the wounds he was able to, he began to move toward the fallen fighter. Upon closer investigation, he noticed that the Occult Impaction wound was gone. And in another moment, Zift rose.

With great haste, Zift rose from his knock-out blow, and lashed out at Kitai's head with his left armblade. Kitai swiftly dodged it with a duck, but Zift held two weapons. Zift aimed a stab with his right arm at Kitai's head. Kitai parryed the attack, letting Zift's momentum bring his enemy closer to him. Just as Zift was right before him, Kitai kicked him with both feet, knocking Zift over Kitai. Zift was cast into the direction of Kitai's head, which was the opposite side he was on just moments before. He quickly recovered, as did Kitai. Zift summoned his dark flame once again, and endowed his blades with the fire. This time though, he did not fling the embers at Kitai, instead, he let his swords burn with the flame, covering the evil blade with an even more wicked aura. He rushed Kitai yet again. His arms let loose a barrage of fiery bites, each one evaded by Kitai who again was forced to move back to offset his enemy's frontal attack. Although he was missing, the fire still singed Kitai. The flames were so scorching that even from inches away one could get blistered by the blazes. Kitai winced in pain as each swing dealt potent fire damage to his skin.

Until he had nowhere to back up against, he was backed against a massive 18-wheeler truck, with no chance of escaping. Zift's swelterting bombardment of slashes melted the metal each time it touched them, and also burned Kitai in the process. Kitai could not hold this up for much longer, he had to do something, and he did not want to get hit by one of the blazing blades to execute Root. No chance in hell.

Kitai let out his Fury.

Kitai bellowed a mighty roar and stabbed the ground with his ethereal Katana, creating a shockwave that blasted Zift away, and a tremor that shook him off-balance to the ground. Kitai discharged an awesome red aura and sparks of lightning bounced off his body, as if they were protecting him. Kitai's head looked up to meet his enemy. His eyes had shifted to that same extraordinary red aura in color. Kitai appeared to be a true berserker.

Zift cowered for a moment, as if he were still human.

Kitai extracted his edge from the pavement, and spun it into his fighting stance. He slowly paced toward his opponent, as if Kitai was attempting to instill more fear into his enemy. Zift rose to the challenge, and readied a defensive stance to prepare for another duel.

Kitai ran in, and sliced for Zift's head. In this enraged state, Kitai no longer cared if Zift died. It was not Kitai's problem. Zift dodged it though, and began to thrust with both arms to attack Kitai's chest. Kitai dodged just as easily as Zift did, launching another attack. Zift blocked with his left blade, cringing, and staggered backwards as the power of Kitai's attack was still to be felt. He supported his left guard with his right, creating an x-formation. Still, Kitai pressed on, pushing him farther and farther back. Finally, Zift let his guard break, and stepped to the side to let Kitai's momentum carry him away. Zift flung his two arms into the air, ready to slash down in great vehemence. Kitai spun in a circle to break the momentum spell, and he slashed for Zift's armblades, launching him away, but dealing no physical damage.

Zift landed on his feet from the attack, but was still sliding away uncontrollably. He stabbed the ground with his left arm to stop the sliding motion. Zift's knees were bent, and his back was also hunched over. Infuriated at the duration of the battle, he stabbed the pavement with his right blade, causing a shockwave and tremor much similar to what Kitai created earlier. Zift pulled out both of his blades from the pavement, and he too, emitted a red aura, with blue lightning bouncing off of him.

Kitai finally realized why he could not win. He was fighting a mirror image of himself.

Suddenly, an angelic figure swooped down from the sky, and made an effort to kill Zift. Zift jumped backwards, causing the attack to miss. The attack was so devestating that it cracked the pavement in a wide ten yard radius, and brushed both Zift and Kitai aside. When the figure stood up, Kitai immediately recognized who it was.

Cyril had just came in to save Kitai.

The angel marched toward Kitai, disregarding the fact that Zift was still awake and ready to fight. Cyril started to speak to Kitai, "Who is this?" he asked.

"Its... Zift." Kitai glanced over his protector's shoulder. "Or at least, _was_."

Cyril turned around to see what Kitai was talking about, and immediately noted the strange eyes, the empty feeling that were locked in those eyes. Cyril became infuriated, and his eyes filled with ire. He apparently knew what was going on. "Kitai, let me handle him. Someone like you can not even hope to win against this thing."

Kitai nodded, and stepped back to let the Seraphim do his business. "Sure thing. Just watch out, that thing fights like me."

"Then this should be a good fight." Cyril smirked.

Cyril spun his axe to convoke his three other selves. They materialized to Cyril's side, and he began his bloodlust.

The first Cyril dashed toward Zift, lifting his axe, and swung with great vigor. His attack miss as Zift flew into the sky to dodge it. The second Cyril elevated himself as well, ready to meet the opponent. He pulled his axe apart and launched the axeblade at Zift in one elegant motion. Surprised, Zift barely dodged and the blade managed to singe some skin on Zift's face. He then staggered around in air from the attack, until the next Cyril launched his axe at him as well. Zift blocked the attack with his left blade, and his arm shook from the intense attack. He bashed the blade back with his right arm, and turned his attention to the last Cyril, which was now darting straight to him. Zift blocked the final Cyril's axe with his left, and summoned his dark fire with his right. The other Cyrils were ready for a second assault, and they came flying towards the target. But Zift quickly threw his burning sphere into the air before they reached him, and stabbed it with his right. The sphere did not enchant his weapon, but instead it exploded in a magnificant show, hurling miniature fireballs in every direction. The Cyrils blocked the pyrotechnics with their axes. Zift attacked the closest Cyril, batting the axe away with his left sword, which allowed him to attack with a furious right-armed swipe. The Cyril fell to the ground, wounded.

Zift then attacked in his enraged state, ready to crush another Cyril. Cyril launched his axe at the oncoming berserker, but missed in a valiant effort. Zift then thrusted his right blade into his target, creating a huge gash in his chest. Zift spun, and launched a kick which heaved Cyril to the ground. Two Cyrils were felled. But there were still two left, both of which attacked the open Zift at the same time. Zift attempted to block both attacks with his two weapons, and it proved successful. It was a standoff, until one of the Cyrils rose and launched his axe straight for Zift's open back. The axe lodged itself in the body, and then suddenly became heavy. Zift fell to the ground, smashing his infraggable skull into the ground.

The four Cyrils covened back on the ground, curing their wounds. Kitai stood in admiration as he watched the beautiful fight. Zift somehow managed to repel his four opponent's attacks longer than Kitai was able to.

Zift stood up, ready to meet his enemy yet again. He clasped his two hands to cast a spell. Cyril stood there, not moving, wondering what type of attack his opponent would choose to perform this time. Zift's hands spread apart, revealing a sphere cast of dark, purple thunder. The thunderball floated between his two hands, not moving, and static charges pulsed from his two hands to the ball, as if those lifted the sphere, not spiritual power. When his hands were as far apart as he desired, Zift slammed the lightning charge on both sides with his hands, and immediately he split into two Zifts now. Then both of the Zifts created their fireballs, endowing their weapon with the wicked blaze. They charged into the fray.

The two Cyrils that were met in battle were not prepared to fight Zift so quickly, and so they began to dodge the mighty barrage of jabs. The other two Cyrils knew that this fight would not be an easily won battle. They clasped their axes back into their arms, and their right arms began to glow with an burning yellow aura. Cyril was ready to show why he was such a valued Seraphim.

His left hands shook as they hovered over a spot on the ground where his right fists would soon meet. His right arm rose into the air, ready to punch the earth beneath him. The Cyrils let out a furious cry, and smashed the ground with his right arms. His arm no longer shined with the bright aura. Nothing seemed to happened.

The Zift and Cyril pairs that were engaging each other fought furiously. Zift wondered what the other Cyrils had just done, but did not bother to find out. An easier victory for him was graciously accepted anytime. Both of the Zifts then found a weakpoint in their enemies' defense, and took advantage of it. They launched their right arms to attack the axes, preparing themselves for the powerful block. The Cyrils defended himself with his axe. Just as he lowered it to attack back, the Zifts then grabbed the head of their enemies with their left hand. The blaze that covered the blade was no more, and began to move toward his hand, burning the heads.

A strange burning, yellow circular light appeared from beneath the Zifts.

They looked down. In another moment, they were shot by a potent yellow light beam, spiraling them into the sky. The golden pillar dissapated just as it met the clouds in the sky, and the Zifts began to drop. Apparently Cyrils' attack had not failed, as this was it. The Zifts quickly recovered from their airbone shock, and charged toward his enemies in a blinded rage.

Another light erupted from the ground, singeing the Zifts as they barely dodged the beam. A third pillar came towards them, and yet again, they barely managed to dodge. More and more eruptions of holy lights jetted out from the ground, attacking the Zifts. They could only manage to dodge the beams assaulting them, with no chance to attack the Cyrils. Still, they searched for their foes, and saw two Cyrils still kneeling down with their fists in the ground, as if they were commanding them. They could not find the other Cyrils.

Then the two missing Cyrils rushed forward, axes flailing, and they sliced for the airbone Zifts. The Zifts managed to dodge backwards, but were met by another column of painful golden light. Again, they were hurled into the air from the eruption. When they finally were free of the light, they were met in the sky by the Cyrils. They began to engage each other yet again beyond the limits of the bright pillars. This time, they were evenly matched in the one versus one grudge match.

The Cyrils caught onto their opponents' plans, and began to form their counteroffense. They waited for the perfect moment.

The other Cyrils remained on the ground, receiving the plan via a telepathic link that all four Cyrils held.

Finally, the airborne Cyrils made it seem like their chest was vulnerable in the midst of the skirmish, anticipating that Zift would launch a potent stab for the weak spot.

The Zifts followed their plan, and immediately thrusted his blade for Cyrils' weakpoint. Quickly, the Seraphims evaded to the side, un-chained their axe, and threw it straight for their opponents' feet, bonding them together by the chain. They then put forth latent magic abilities and gave the axe a physicality to it, hurling the entangled Zifts as they fell for the ground, surprised by the sudden burden of the axe. He plunged toward the earth below, looking towards the sky as they tried to slash the chain apart.

They did not notice the new radiant shaft that had been expelled from the ground from beneath them. The force was of great magnitude as the damage was amplified by Zifts' heavy weight. He spat out blood as the pillar propelled him upwards, almost drowning in it. As they approached the zenith of his climb, the Cyrils were there to meet them with a full-bodied, potent kick. Again, the Zifts coughed out blood at the onslaught, and plunged toward the ground yet again, but the Cyrils were not finished. They too, dove to the ground at maximum velocity, outflying the Zifts. Then the Cyrils retracted their chain axes to a minimal length, closening the distance between the fighters.

As the four figures plummeted downward, the remaining Cyrils pulled their arms back from the ground, and re-formed their axes as they expected new guests to arrive.

Then the airborne Cyrils, as the distance between them and the ground decreased, pulled the hilts of their axes in front of them with a mighty force, pulling the Zifts in front with massive force. The Zifts were slammed straight into the ground, breaking the pavement beneath it beyond the gravel that had been laid upon the ground. The Zifts laid in personal pits, stunned. Swiftly, the Cyrils jumped into the graves, and secured the unconscious bodies. The chains were still wrapped around their legs, just in case they had managed to survive.

The Cyrils that still held their axe blade, raised them up high to get ready to execute their prey. In another moment, Zift would be gone from the world. Only if Cyril had gotten the chance though.

Before Zift got the chance to die, a storm of razor sharp daggers hailed down towards the pit, dotting the ground with metallic grass.

The Cyrils jumped away from the Zifts, abandoning their prey to protect themselves. When all the knives had stopped falling from the sky, they noticed something odd: none had hit the Zifts. Without hesitation, the Cyrils moved in on their prey again, but another burst of daggers came storming through, this time from the sides of the Cyrils. They easily dodged the wave of blades by backstepping, and yet another bombardment came from behind them. Instantaneously, they rolled off to the side to dodge the hail of daggers. A fourth storm of sharp knives plunged downward at the Seraphims. The Cyrils whipped their axes and used them as a barrier, spinng them to create a circular shield above them, deflecting the knives. The blizzard of the razar-edged metal seemeed relentless.

Kitai observed, and yet could not do anything to help. He did catch sight of something odd though: a shadow started to move toward the Zifts. Without a second thought, Kitai darted forward, unleashing his weapon as he charged toward, and let out a fierce slash out at the shadow. The umbra formed into an angel itself, and pulled out a dagger to block Kitai's attack.

"I can't let you do that," the figure said dissaprovingly. The shadow quickly knocked Kitai back with its second arm, and another dark frame emerged from the shadow Kitai's body cast. The new figure grabbed Kitai around the throat, strangling him and lifting him up so his feet could not touch the ground. The first shadow lurked toward the unconscious Zifts, absorbing both of them as it hastily passed by. Kitai tried to break free, but to no avail. When the evil minion had absorbed both Zifts, it transformed into an enormous, dark, brooding raven with blood red eyes. The threatening raven flapped its mighty wings, and flew into the once silent air. As the giant bird drifted away, the storm of blades finally ceased, and the Cyrils looked in awe as the raven flew away with their catch.

Then they turned around to see Kitai getting strangled, and one immediately threw an axe at the silhouette, and in turn, the figure loosened its grip, and backed away. Kitai instincitively turned around to punch his attacker, but when his fist met the shadow, it dissipated into thin air. He fell to his knees, and gasped for air, occasionally choking.

The Cyrils had disappeared as well, forming one true Seraphim once more. He walked up to Kitai, who was still on the ground. "Get up. Now."

Startled, Kitai looked up to the angel. "What?" Kitai got up just like he was told, and wondered why Cyril had told him to do so.

"Behind you," Cyril answered, knowing the next question Kitai would ask.

Kitai turned around, and became stupified.

A massive vanguard of shining knights in silver-clad armor were marching toward Kitai and Cyril. They all had gleaming tower shields, shining chestplates, reflective greaves and plumed helms. They held either a razor-sharp one handed sword, double-headed battle axe, or an eight foot long lance in their right hand. The army trampled the ground as they marched, their cold yellow eyes staring down Kitai and Cyril.

"Holy shit..." Kitai muttered, "What are those?"

"DeiCustos. Another monster controlled by the Heavens." Cyril spit on the ground in disgust.

"How are there so many? There was only one Infernal."

"I would like to know that too," he stated angrily, "But more importantly, why are they after us?"

The question seemed irrevelant and unanswerable. Both of them armed their weapons as the invading force came closer and closer.

"Think anyone will help us to stop this madness?" Kitai asked.

"I doubt it, whoever orchestrated this has probably neutralized all the defensive forces that would be capable to help. If they went through the trouble of getting so many DeiCustos, then I doubt neutralizing a group of humans would be hard."

"Then we're gonna fight them?"

"You already know the answer."

"Heh." Kitai turned his head toward Cyril and smirked. "No clones though?"

"I've no energy to resummon them. They drain a lot of my spiritual power when I let them loose, and once I recollect them back into me, I have a cooldown period."

"How convenient."

They poised themselves, ready to attack at any moment. As soon as the approaching bombardment of DeiCustos broke into a sprint towards them, they too dashed toward their enemy. A new battle had just emerged, yet Cyril and Kitai were determined to make this one a victory.


End file.
